Methods, apparatuses, and systems for user account-affiliated payment and billing, consolidated digital biller-payment wallets

ABSTRACT

Described are systems, apparatuses, methods, and computer program products for low-input initiation of user account-affiliated transactions. An example apparatus can comprise a processor and a memory storing program code configured to cause the apparatus to store payor information, authentication information, and account information associated with a payor; store payee information associated with payees; receive, from a payee device or a payor device, a request to initiate a payment, the request comprising information about a payor and payee as well as a payment amount; determine, based at least upon the information about the payor and payee, and the stored information, whether the payment is to a pre-approved payee or merchant with which payor has a pre-existing account; and, in an instance in which the determination is in the affirmative, initiate the payment by providing at least payor and payee information and payment amount a payment processor.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present disclosure relates generally to methods and apparatuses forsecure payment processing and billing, and more particularly to methodsand apparatuses for user account-affiliated digital biller-paymentswallets and cards for carrying out secure payment processing andbilling.

BACKGROUND

Conventional systems, methods, and apparatuses for initiating andprocessing payments in electronic commerce (e-commerce) and bill paymenttypically require users (e.g., payors) to remember and inputauthentication indicia or enter personal information before initiating apayment. For instance, some conventional approaches require users toinitially register with and later securely sign into disparate, securedpayment processing portals to complete encrypted transactions orinitiate encrypted payment processes. In other instances, someconventional approaches require users to enter some or all of theirpertinent personally identifying information (PII), bill or accountinformation, transaction information, and payment details (e.g., name ontheir payment card, payment card number, billing address associated withtheir payment card, the expiration date of their payment card, a cardverification value (CVV) printed on their payment card, etc.) toinitiate or complete a secure payment or transaction.

Some other conventional systems may rely on a single server to store allthe personal details in a secure digital wallet. However, a singleserver may not have all the personal details or the server may not beset up to accept additional details the user may want to store or theuser may be reluctant to store some personal details at a single server.Moreover, depending on the security mechanism provided by a singleserver storing all the confidential user information may ease breakinginto the server that may compromise the user information. In othersystems, such as those described in U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/663,840, entitled “Systems and Methods for Creating and AccessingElectronic Wallet,” the entire disclosures of which are herebyincorporated herein by reference in their entireties for all purposes,may benefit from using a secure digital wallet in which the personaldetails and transaction details can be maintained. However, conventionalpayment processing systems, such as those that use conventional digitalwallets may be used for facilitating payments or financial transactionsbetween a user associated with the digital wallet and any vendor,merchant, payee, or the like. As such, if an unauthorized person ordevice gains access to the payment processing systems or digital wallet,the unauthorized person or device could illicitly obtain the user'spersonally identifying information and financial information, initiateunauthorized purchases and transactions, and/or transfer funds out ofthe user's account.

BRIEF SUMMARY

It will be understood that this disclosure is not limited to theparticular system and methodologies described, as there can be multiplepossible embodiments of the present disclosure that are not expresslyillustrated in the present disclosure. It is also to be understood thatthe terminology used in the description is for the purpose of describingthe particular versions or embodiments only, and is not intended tolimit the scope of the present disclosure.

Described herein are systems, apparatuses, methods, and computer programproducts for simple and secure initiation of payments and financialtransactions.

According to some embodiments, a user account-affiliated digital walletsystem is provided, the system comprising a user device, a merchantdevice, and means for initiating a payment or other such transaction,such as a transaction initiation device. The transaction initiationdevice may comprise a processor and memory device storing program code.In some embodiments, the memory device and the program code areconfigured, with the processor, to cause the transaction initiationdevice to store at least user account information in a digital wallet.Other information, such as a user's account information for one or moremerchants, authentication indicia, personally identifying information,payment option details, credit and/or debit card details, bank accountinformation, user payment preferences or requirements, merchant paymentpreferences or requirements, and/or the like may also be stored in thedigital wallet. In some embodiments, the transaction initiation devicemay store the digital wallet locally or remotely, in a singular locationor in plural locations. For instance, the digital wallet may store someinformation in an encrypted format while storing other information in anon-encrypted format.

According to some embodiments, the transaction initiation device mayreceive a purchase request, from the user device, another deviceassociated permanently or temporarily with the user, the merchantdevice, another device associated permanently or temporarily with amerchant, an unknown device, or the like. The purchase request can be assimple as including an indication of a payor, an indication of a payee,and a payment amount. The purchase request may alternatively includeother information, such as personally identifying information (PII)associated with the user, a request for authentication indicia from theuser, contextual information about the reason or cause for the payment,or the like. In some embodiments, the purchase request may provide anidentifying value such as a merchant-side account number in lieu of apayor name or other PII. In such an instance, the transaction initiationdevice may query a set of digital wallets or otherwise reference a setof information about plural users to associate the provided identifyingvalue with a particular user. In some embodiments, the payment requestmay include a merchant/payee account information in lieu of a merchantname or other merchant information necessary to carry out the payment ortransaction. In such an instance, the transaction initiation device mayquery the set of digital wallets or a separate merchant dataset toassociate the provided merchant/payee account information with themerchant name or other merchant information necessary to carry out thepayment or transaction. In some embodiments, user payment preferences oruser payment requirements may be stored in the digital wallet orreferenceable by the transaction initiation device during initiation ofthe payment or transaction.

According to some embodiments, the digital wallet may be configured toonly participate in payment or transaction processing for payment tomerchants with which the user/payor has an account, and only forpayments/transactions associated with said account. In some embodiments,the digital wallet may be configured to only participate in financialtransactions when the financial transactions are designated for paymentof an outstanding bill associated with a user account with the payee. Insome embodiments, the transaction initiation device may be configuredto, upon receiving a payment or transaction request, determine if thepayee or merchant indicated in or associated with the payment ortransaction request is a merchant or payee with which the user/payor hasan account.

In some embodiments, even if a purchase request, bill payment request,financial transaction request, or the like, originates from an unknownentity, the transaction initiation device and/or digital wallet may beconfigured to still initiate and/or carry out the purchase, billpayment, financial transaction, or the like. For example, thetransaction initiation device and/or digital wallet may determine, fromthe purchase request, bill payment request, financial transactionrequest, or the like, the identity of the user associated with thedigital wallet, the merchant/payee to which the money or other currencyfor the purchase, bill payment, financial transaction, or the like aredirected, and the amount of money or other currency being requested.Once the transaction initiation device and/or digital wallet determinesthe identity of the user/payor and the identity of the merchant/payee,the transaction initiation device and/or digital wallet can reference adatabase or set of pre-authorized merchant accounts associated with theuser and determine if the merchant/payee identified in the request isassociated with one of the pre-authorized merchant accounts. In aninstance in which the transaction initiation device and/or digitalwallet determines that the merchant/payee identified in the request isassociated with a pre-authorized merchant account, the transactioninitiation device and/or digital wallet can automatically initiate thetransaction or automatically provide all necessary transaction detailsto a payment processor to cause the payment processor to carry out thepurchase, bill payment, financial transaction, or the like.

In other embodiments, the transaction initiation device and/or digitalwallet may be configured to receive, store, retrieve, or otherwisedetermine user payment preferences, user payment requirements, userpayment type requirements, or the like. In other embodiments, thetransaction initiation device and/or digital wallet may be configured toreceive, store, retrieve, or otherwise determine, for one, some, or allmerchants, merchant payment preferences, merchant payment requirements,merchant payment type requirements, or the like. In some embodiments,the user payment preferences may include a particular type of paymentmethod or a particular payment method preferred for use with one, some,or all merchants. In some embodiments, the merchant payment preferencesmay include a particular type of payment method or a particular paymentmethod preferred by one, some, or all merchants. In some embodiments,the

In another embodiment, a user account-affiliated payment card isprovided. The payment card can have dimensions substantially similar tothat of a conventional credit card or debit card. In some embodiments,the payment card can comprise one or more of: a card number, acardholder name, an expiry date, a security chip, a Europay, MasterCard®and Visa® (EMV®) chip, a magnetic strip, a CVV number, a dynamic CVVnumber, a near field communication (NFC) transmitter, inductive couplingantennas, and/or the like. The payment card can store informationregarding one or more merchant accounts associated with one or moremerchants. The payment card is configured to initiate payment with amerchant associated with the one or more merchant accounts. For example,a user may associate their payment card with one or more merchantaccounts and provide at least one payment method to be stored on thepayment card. A payment method can include another payment card, such asa credit card or a debit card, a bank account, an e-payment account suchas a PayPal® account, a cryptocurrency, an electronic currency, a tokenhaving value, cash, e-wallet funds, non-fungible tokens, a stored-valuecard, electronic bank transfers, Apple Pay®, Google Pay®, AndroidPay®,or the like. In some embodiments, at least a portion of the digitalwallet can be or comprise a pass-through digital wallet or astored-value digital wallet. In some embodiments, a portion of theinformation stored on the payment card (e.g., on an embedded chip or thelike) can be encrypted while other portion(s) of the information storedon the payment card can be non-encrypted.

By way of example only, a user may use a payment card, such as describedherein, to purchase a product or service, pay a bill or invoice,initiate a financial transaction, or the like. However, according tosome embodiments, the payment card can be user account-affiliated suchthat it is only configured for initiating payments, purchases, orfinancial transactions in association with a merchant account associatedwith the user. The set of merchant information may be dynamicallyupdated to add or remove merchant accounts associated with the user.Since the payment card according to some embodiments is configured toonly initiate payments, purchases, or financial transactions withpre-authorized merchants, and only in regard to accounts at thesepre-authorized merchants that are associated with the user, any personor device that gains unauthorized access to the user's payment cardwould only be able to complete purchases or payments regarding theuser's own accounts. For example, the user may have an account with alocal natural gas supply company, and therefore the local natural gassupply company may be designated as a pre-authorized merchant for theuser's digital wallet and the user's payment card. In an instance inwhich the local natural gas supply company is the only merchantpre-authorized for the user's digital wallet and the user's paymentcard, both the user's digital wallet and the user's payment card aresecured against any transaction with any other merchant, even with othermerchants with which the user has a legitimate account. As such, even ifthe user's digital wallet or the user's payment card was accessed by anunauthorized person or device, the unauthorized person or device wouldonly be able to make payments, from any of the user's stored paymentmethods, to the user's account with the local natural gas supplycompany. Other financial transactions, such as the transfer of funds toan external account, or even between the user's different paymentmethods stored at the digital wallet or on the payment card, thepurchase of any product or service with any other merchant, or any otherpayments are completely disallowed, even by the user, no matter whatauthentication information or other authorization commands are provided.

According to some embodiments, the digital wallet and/or the paymentcard can be configured such that additional merchants and/or additionaluser account with merchants can only be authorized for the digitalwallet and/or the payment card through an authorization process thatrequires additional security measures such as two-factor authentication,biometric screening, or the like.

In another embodiment, an apparatus can be provided that is configuredfor secure payment processing, the apparatus comprising: one or moreprocessors; and one or more memory devices storing program code, the oneor more memory devices and the program code being configured, with theone or more processors, at least to: store, in a digital walletassociated with a user, information regarding one or more paymentoptions associated with the user, and information regarding one or moremerchant accounts associated with the user; receive a request toinitiate a payment between the user and a payee; determine, based uponat least the information regarding one or more merchant accountsassociated with the user, whether the payee is associated with aparticular merchant account of the one or more merchant accountsassociated with the user; and, in an instance in which the payee isassociated with a particular merchant account of the one or moremerchant accounts associated with the user, initiate the payment to theparticular merchant account according to one of the one or more paymentoptions associated with the user. In some embodiments, the one or morememory devices and the program code are further configured, with the oneor more processors, at least to: store user payment preferencesassociated with the one or more merchant accounts and the one or morepayment options. In some embodiments, the one or more memory devices andthe program code are further configured, with the one or moreprocessors, at least to: determine, based upon at least the user paymentpreferences, a particular payment option from among the one or morepayment options to be used for the payment; and provide, to a paymentprocessor, sufficient information regarding the particular paymentoption from among the one or more payment options to cause the paymentprocessor to carry out a financial transfer between the particularpayment option associated with the user and the particular merchantaccount of the one or more merchant accounts associated with the user.In some embodiments, the one or more memory devices and the program codeare further configured, with the one or more processors, at least to:store merchant transaction requirements associated with the one or moremerchant accounts, the merchant transaction requirements comprising oneof: one or more allowed types of payment source, or one or moredisallowed types of payment source. In some embodiments, the one or morememory devices and the program code are further configured, with the oneor more processors, at least to: determine, based upon at least themerchant transaction requirements, a particular payment option fromamong the one or more payment options to be use for the payment; andprovide, to a payment processor, sufficient information regarding theparticular payment option from among the one or more payment options tocause the payment processor to carry out a financial transfer betweenthe particular payment option associated with the user and theparticular merchant account of the one or more merchant accountsassociated with the user. In some embodiments, the one or more memorydevices and the program code are further configured, with the one ormore processors, at least to: in an instance in which the determinationis in the affirmative, provide a notification to a user device or adevice associated with said particular merchant account that the paymenthas been initiated. In some embodiments, the one or more memory devicesand the program code are further configured, with the one or moreprocessors, at least to: in an instance in which the determination is inthe negative, provide a notification to a user device or a deviceassociated with said particular merchant account that the payment isdisallowed and refrain from initiating the payment with the paymentprocessor.

In still another embodiment, an apparatus can be provided that isconfigured for secure payment processing, the apparatus comprisingmeans, such as one or more processors and one or more memory devicesstoring program code, for storing, in a digital wallet associated with auser, information regarding one or more payment options associated withthe user, and information regarding one or more merchant accountsassociated with the user; means for receiving a request to initiate apayment between the user and a payee; means for determining, based uponat least the information regarding one or more merchant accountsassociated with the user, whether the payee is associated with aparticular merchant account of the one or more merchant accountsassociated with the user; and means for, in an instance in which thepayee is associated with a particular merchant account of the one ormore merchant accounts associated with the user, initiating the paymentto the particular merchant account according to one of the one or morepayment options associated with the user. In some embodiments, theapparatus can further comprise means for storing user paymentpreferences associated with the one or more merchant accounts and theone or more payment options. In some embodiments, the apparatus canfurther comprise means for determining, based upon at least the userpayment preferences, a particular payment option from among the one ormore payment options to be used for the payment; and means forproviding, to a payment processor, sufficient information regarding theparticular payment option from among the one or more payment options tocause the payment processor to carry out a financial transfer betweenthe particular payment option associated with the user and theparticular merchant account of the one or more merchant accountsassociated with the user. In some embodiments, the apparatus can furthercomprise means for storing merchant transaction requirements associatedwith the one or more merchant accounts, the merchant transactionrequirements comprising one of: one or more allowed types of paymentsource, or one or more disallowed types of payment source. In someembodiments, the apparatus can further comprise means for determining,based upon at least the merchant transaction requirements, a particularpayment option from among the one or more payment options to be use forthe payment; and means for providing, to a payment processor, sufficientinformation regarding the particular payment option from among the oneor more payment options to cause the payment processor to carry out afinancial transfer between the particular payment option associated withthe user and the particular merchant account of the one or more merchantaccounts associated with the user. In some embodiments, the apparatuscan further comprise means for, in an instance in which thedetermination is in the affirmative, providing a notification to a userdevice or a device associated with said particular merchant account thatthe payment has been initiated. In some embodiments, the apparatus canfurther comprise means for, in an instance in which the determination isin the negative, providing a notification to a user device or a deviceassociated with said particular merchant account that the payment isdisallowed and refraining from initiating the payment with the paymentprocessor.

According to another embodiment, a method for secure payment processingcan be carried out, the method comprising: storing, in a digital walletassociated with a user, information regarding one or more paymentoptions associated with the user, and information regarding one or moremerchant accounts associated with the user; receiving a request toinitiate a payment between the user and a payee; determining, based uponat least the information regarding one or more merchant accountsassociated with the user, whether the payee is associated with aparticular merchant account of the one or more merchant accountsassociated with the user; and, in an instance in which the payee isassociated with a particular merchant account of the one or moremerchant accounts associated with the user, initiating the payment tothe particular merchant account according to one of the one or morepayment options associated with the user. In some embodiments, themethod can further comprise: storing user payment preferences associatedwith the one or more merchant accounts and the one or more paymentoptions. In some embodiments, the method can further comprise:determining, based upon at least the user payment preferences, aparticular payment option from among the one or more payment options tobe used for the payment; and providing, to a payment processor,sufficient information regarding the particular payment option fromamong the one or more payment options to cause the payment processor tocarry out a financial transfer between the particular payment optionassociated with the user and the particular merchant account of the oneor more merchant accounts associated with the user. In some embodiments,the method can further comprise: storing merchant transactionrequirements associated with the one or more merchant accounts, themerchant transaction requirements comprising one of: one or more allowedtypes of payment source, or one or more disallowed types of paymentsource. In some embodiments, the method can further comprise:determining, based upon at least the merchant transaction requirements,a particular payment option from among the one or more payment optionsto be use for the payment; and providing, to a payment processor,sufficient information regarding the particular payment option fromamong the one or more payment options to cause the payment processor tocarry out a financial transfer between the particular payment optionassociated with the user and the particular merchant account of the oneor more merchant accounts associated with the user. In some embodiments,the method can further comprise: in an instance in which thedetermination is in the affirmative, providing a notification to a userdevice or a device associated with said particular merchant account thatthe payment has been initiated. In some embodiments, the method canfurther comprise: in an instance in which the determination is in thenegative, providing a notification to a user device or a deviceassociated with said particular merchant account that the payment isdisallowed and refraining from initiating the payment with the paymentprocessor.

According to still another embodiment, a computer program product can beprovided that comprises a non-transitory computer readable mediumstoring program instructions, the program instructions being operablefor causing at least: storing, in a digital wallet associated with auser, information regarding one or more payment options associated withthe user, and information regarding one or more merchant accountsassociated with the user; receiving a request to initiate a paymentbetween the user and a payee; determining, based upon at least theinformation regarding one or more merchant accounts associated with theuser, whether the payee is associated with a particular merchant accountof the one or more merchant accounts associated with the user; and, inan instance in which the payee is associated with a particular merchantaccount of the one or more merchant accounts associated with the user,initiating the payment to the particular merchant account according toone of the one or more payment options associated with the user. In someembodiments, the program instructions are further operable for causingat least: storing user payment preferences associated with the one ormore merchant accounts and the one or more payment options. In someembodiments, the program instructions are further operable for causingat least: determining, based upon at least the user payment preferences,a particular payment option from among the one or more payment optionsto be used for the payment; and providing, to a payment processor,sufficient information regarding the particular payment option fromamong the one or more payment options to cause the payment processor tocarry out a financial transfer between the particular payment optionassociated with the user and the particular merchant account of the oneor more merchant accounts associated with the user. In some embodiments,the program instructions are further operable for causing at least:storing merchant transaction requirements associated with the one ormore merchant accounts, the merchant transaction requirements comprisingone of: one or more allowed types of payment source, or one or moredisallowed types of payment source. In some embodiments, the programinstructions are further operable for causing at least: determining,based upon at least the merchant transaction requirements, a particularpayment option from among the one or more payment options to be use forthe payment; and providing, to a payment processor, sufficientinformation regarding the particular payment option from among the oneor more payment options to cause the payment processor to carry out afinancial transfer between the particular payment option associated withthe user and the particular merchant account of the one or more merchantaccounts associated with the user. In some embodiments, the programinstructions are further operable for causing at least: in an instancein which the determination is in the affirmative, providing anotification to a user device or a device associated with saidparticular merchant account that the payment has been initiated. In someembodiments, the program instructions are further operable for causingat least: in an instance in which the determination is in the negative,providing a notification to a user device or a device associated withsaid particular merchant account that the payment is disallowed andrefrain from initiating the payment with the payment processor.

According to yet another embodiment, an apparatus can be provided thatis configured for secure payment processing, the apparatus comprising:one or more processors; and one or more memory devices storing programcode, the one or more memory devices and the program code beingconfigured, with the one or more processors, at least to: store at leastpayor information, authentication information, and account informationassociated with a payor; store at least payee information associatedwith one or more payees; receive, from a payee device or a payor device,a request to initiate a payment, the request comprising the payorinformation, the payee information associated with a particular payee ofthe one or more payees, and payment information regarding the payment;determine, based at least upon the payor information, the payeeinformation associated with a particular payee of the one or morepayees, the authentication information, the account information, andpayment information regarding the payment, and further based upon one ofpayor preferences or payee preferences, whether the payment is with apre-approved payee from among the one or more payees; and, in aninstance in which the determination is in the affirmative, initiate thepayment by providing the payment information regarding the payment, thepayor information, the payee information associated with the particularpayee of the one or more payees, the authentication information, theaccount information, and the payment information regarding the paymentto a payment processor. In some embodiments, the one or more memorydevices and the program code are further configured, with the one ormore processors, at least to: in an instance in which the determinationis in the affirmative, provide a notification to the payee device or thepayor device that the payment has been initiated. In some embodiments,the one or more memory devices and the program code are furtherconfigured, with the one or more processors, at least to: in an instancein which the determination is in the negative, provide a notification tothe payee device or the payor device that the payment is disallowed andrefrain from initiating the payment with the payment processor.

According to another embodiment, an apparatus can be provided that isconfigured for secure payment processing, the apparatus comprisingmeans, such as one or more processors and one or more memory devicesstoring program code, for storing at least payor information,authentication information, and account information associated with apayor; means for storing at least payee information associated with oneor more payees; means for receiving, from a payee device or a payordevice, a request to initiate a payment, the request comprising thepayor information, the payee information associated with a particularpayee of the one or more payees, and payment information regarding thepayment; means for determining, based at least upon the payorinformation, the payee information associated with a particular payee ofthe one or more payees, the authentication information, the accountinformation, and payment information regarding the payment, and furtherbased upon one of payor preferences or payee preferences, whether thepayment is with a pre-approved payee from among the one or more payees;and means for, in an instance in which the determination is in theaffirmative, initiating the payment by providing the payment informationregarding the payment, the payor information, the payee informationassociated with the particular payee of the one or more payees, theauthentication information, the account information, and the paymentinformation regarding the payment to a payment processor. In someembodiments, the apparatus can further comprise means for, in aninstance in which the determination is in the affirmative, providing anotification to the payee device or the payor device that the paymenthas been initiated. In some embodiments, the apparatus can furthercomprise means for, in an instance in which the determination is in thenegative, providing a notification to the payee device or the payordevice that the payment is disallowed and refrain from initiating thepayment with the payment processor.

According to still another embodiment, a method can be carried out thatcomprises: storing at least payor information, authenticationinformation, and account information associated with a payor; storing atleast payee information associated with one or more payees; receiving,from a payee device or a payor device, a request to initiate a payment,the request comprising the payor information, the payee informationassociated with a particular payee of the one or more payees, andpayment information regarding the payment; determining, based at leastupon the payor information, the payee information associated with aparticular payee of the one or more payees, the authenticationinformation, the account information, and payment information regardingthe payment, and further based upon one of payor preferences or payeepreferences, whether the payment is with a pre-approved payee from amongthe one or more payees; and, in an instance in which the determinationis in the affirmative, initiating the payment by providing the paymentinformation regarding the payment, the payor information, the payeeinformation associated with the particular payee of the one or morepayees, the authentication information, the account information, and thepayment information regarding the payment to a payment processor. Insome embodiments, the method can further comprise: in an instance inwhich the determination is in the affirmative, providing a notificationto the payee device or the payor device that the payment has beeninitiated. In some embodiments, the method can further comprise: in aninstance in which the determination is in the negative, providing anotification to the payee device or the payor device that the payment isdisallowed and refraining from initiating the payment with the paymentprocessor.

According to yet another embodiment, a computer program product can beprovided that comprises a non-transitory computer readable mediumstoring program instructions, the program instructions being operablefor causing at least: storing at least payor information, authenticationinformation, and account information associated with a payor; storing atleast payee information associated with one or more payees; receiving,from a payee device or a payor device, a request to initiate a payment,the request comprising the payor information, the payee informationassociated with a particular payee of the one or more payees, andpayment information regarding the payment; determining, based at leastupon the payor information, the payee information associated with aparticular payee of the one or more payees, the authenticationinformation, the account information, and payment information regardingthe payment, and further based upon one of payor preferences or payeepreferences, whether the payment is with a pre-approved payee from amongthe one or more payees; and, in an instance in which the determinationis in the affirmative, initiating the payment by providing the paymentinformation regarding the payment, the payor information, the payeeinformation associated with the particular payee of the one or morepayees, the authentication information, the account information, and thepayment information regarding the payment to a payment processor. Insome embodiments, the program instructions are further operable forcausing at least: in an instance in which the determination is in theaffirmative, providing a notification to the payee device or the payordevice that the payment has been initiated. In some embodiments, theprogram instructions are further operable for causing at least: in aninstance in which the determination is in the negative, providing anotification to the payee device or the payor device that the payment isdisallowed and refraining from initiating the payment with the paymentprocessor.

According to another embodiment, an apparatus can be provided that isconfigured for secure payment processing, the apparatus comprising: oneor more processors; and one or more memory devices storing program code,the one or more memory devices and the program code being configured,with the one or more processors, at least to: store, in a digital walletassociated with a user, a set of digital wallet data associated with theuser, the set of digital wallet data comprising: a full name of theuser, a billing address of the user, account numbers and authenticationindicia associated with a plurality of merchant accounts associated withthe user, authentication information associated with the plurality ofmerchant accounts associated with the user, and at least one of: one ormore account numbers and one or more routing numbers associated with oneor more bank accounts associated with the user, a card number, anaccount number, and a card verification value associated with a creditcard or a debit card associated with the user, or one or more accountnumbers and authentication indicia associated with one or morecryptocurrency accounts associated with the user; receive a request toinitiate a payment between the user and the merchant, the requestcomprising at least: an indication of a payor, an indication of a payee,and a payment amount; determine, based at least upon the indication ofthe payor, the indication of the payee, and the set of digital walletdata stored in the digital wallet, whether the payment being requestedis to a pre-approved merchant account from among the plurality ofmerchant accounts; and, in an instance in which the determination is inthe affirmative, automatically initiate the payment. In someembodiments, the one or more memory devices and the program code arefurther configured, with the one or more processors, at least to: in aninstance in which the determination is in the affirmative, automaticallyinitiate the payment by providing at least a portion of the set ofdigital wallet data stored in the digital wallet and the payment amountto a payment processor. In some embodiments, the one or more memorydevices and the program code are further configured, with the one ormore processors, at least to: in an instance in which the determinationis in the affirmative, provide a notification to one or both of a userdevice associated with the payor or a merchant device associated withthe payee that the payment has been initiated. In some embodiments, theone or more memory devices and the program code are further configured,with the one or more processors, at least to: in an instance in whichthe determination is in the negative, provide a notification to one orboth of a user device associated with the payor or a merchant deviceassociated with the payee that the payment is disallowed and refrainfrom initiating the payment with the payment processor.

According to still another embodiment, an apparatus can be provided thatis configured for secure payment processing, the apparatus comprisingmeans, such as one or more processors and one or more memory devicesstoring program code, for storing, in a digital wallet associated with auser, a set of digital wallet data associated with the user, the set ofdigital wallet data comprising: a full name of the user, a billingaddress of the user, account numbers and authentication indiciaassociated with a plurality of merchant accounts associated with theuser, authentication information associated with the plurality ofmerchant accounts associated with the user, and at least one of: one ormore account numbers and one or more routing numbers associated with oneor more bank accounts associated with the user, a card number, anaccount number, and a card verification value associated with a creditcard or a debit card associated with the user, or one or more accountnumbers and authentication indicia associated with one or morecryptocurrency accounts associated with the user; means for receiving arequest to initiate a payment between the user and the merchant, therequest comprising at least: an indication of a payor, an indication ofa payee, and a payment amount; means for determining, based at leastupon the indication of the payor, the indication of the payee, and theset of digital wallet data stored in the digital wallet, whether thepayment being requested is to a pre-approved merchant account from amongthe plurality of merchant accounts; and means for, in an instance inwhich the determination is in the affirmative, automatically initiatingthe payment. In some embodiments, the apparatus can further comprise:means for, in an instance in which the determination is in theaffirmative, automatically initiating the payment by providing at leasta portion of the set of digital wallet data stored in the digital walletand the payment amount to a payment processor. In some embodiments, theapparatus can further comprise: means for, in an instance in which thedetermination is in the affirmative, providing a notification to one orboth of a user device associated with the payor or a merchant deviceassociated with the payee that the payment has been initiated. In someembodiments, the apparatus can further comprise: means for, in aninstance in which the determination is in the negative, providing anotification to one or both of a user device associated with the payoror a merchant device associated with the payee that the payment isdisallowed and refraining from initiating the payment with the paymentprocessor.

According to another embodiment, a method for secure payment processingcan be carried out, the method comprising: storing, in a digital walletassociated with a user, a set of digital wallet data associated with theuser, the set of digital wallet data comprising: a full name of theuser, a billing address of the user, account numbers and authenticationindicia associated with a plurality of merchant accounts associated withthe user, authentication information associated with the plurality ofmerchant accounts associated with the user, and at least one of: one ormore account numbers and one or more routing numbers associated with oneor more bank accounts associated with the user, a card number, anaccount number, and a card verification value associated with a creditcard or a debit card associated with the user, or one or more accountnumbers and authentication indicia associated with one or morecryptocurrency accounts associated with the user; receive a request toinitiate a payment between the user and the merchant, the requestcomprising at least: an indication of a payor, an indication of a payee,and a payment amount; determining, based at least upon the indication ofthe payor, the indication of the payee, and the set of digital walletdata stored in the digital wallet, whether the payment being requestedis to a pre-approved merchant account from among the plurality ofmerchant accounts; and, in an instance in which the determination is inthe affirmative, automatically initiating the payment. In someembodiments, the method can further comprise: in an instance in whichthe determination is in the affirmative, automatically initiating thepayment by providing at least a portion of the set of digital walletdata stored in the digital wallet and the payment amount to a paymentprocessor. In some embodiments, the method can further comprise: in aninstance in which the determination is in the affirmative, providing anotification to one or both of a user device associated with the payoror a merchant device associated with the payee that the payment has beeninitiated. In some embodiments, the method can further comprise: in aninstance in which the determination is in the negative, providing anotification to one or both of a user device associated with the payoror a merchant device associated with the payee that the payment isdisallowed and refraining from initiating the payment with the paymentprocessor.

According to still another embodiment, a computer program product can beprovided that comprises a non-transitory computer readable mediumstoring program instructions, the program instructions being operablefor causing at least: storing, in a digital wallet associated with auser, a set of digital wallet data associated with the user, the set ofdigital wallet data comprising: a full name of the user, a billingaddress of the user, account numbers and authentication indiciaassociated with a plurality of merchant accounts associated with theuser, authentication information associated with the plurality ofmerchant accounts associated with the user, and at least one of: one ormore account numbers and one or more routing numbers associated with oneor more bank accounts associated with the user, a card number, anaccount number, and a card verification value associated with a creditcard or a debit card associated with the user, or one or more accountnumbers and authentication indicia associated with one or morecryptocurrency accounts associated with the user; receiving a request toinitiate a payment between the user and the merchant, the requestcomprising at least: an indication of a payor, an indication of a payee,and a payment amount; determining, based at least upon the indication ofthe payor, the indication of the payee, and the set of digital walletdata stored in the digital wallet, whether the payment being requestedis to a pre-approved merchant account from among the plurality ofmerchant accounts; and, in an instance in which the determination is inthe affirmative, automatically initiating the payment. In someembodiments, the program instructions are further operable for causingat least: in an instance in which the determination is in theaffirmative, automatically initiating the payment by providing at leasta portion of the set of digital wallet data stored in the digital walletand the payment amount to a payment processor. In some embodiments, theprogram instructions are further operable for causing at least: in aninstance in which the determination is in the affirmative, providing anotification to one or both of a user device associated with the payoror a merchant device associated with the payee that the payment has beeninitiated. In some embodiments, the program instructions are furtheroperable for causing at least: in an instance in which the determinationis in the negative, providing a notification to one or both of a userdevice associated with the payor or a merchant device associated withthe payee that the payment is disallowed and refraining from initiatingthe payment with the payment processor.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings illustrate various embodiments of systems,methods, and embodiments of various other aspects of the invention. Anyperson with ordinary skills in the art will appreciate that theillustrated element boundaries (e.g., boxes, groups of boxes, or othershapes) in the figures represent one example of the boundaries. It maybe that in some examples one element may be designed as multipleelements or that multiple elements may be designed as one element. Insome examples, an element shown as an internal component of one elementmay be implemented as an external component in another, and vice versa.Furthermore, elements may not be drawn to scale. Non-limiting andnon-exhaustive descriptions are described with reference to thefollowing drawings. The components in the figures are not necessarily toscale, emphasis instead being placed upon illustrating principles.

FIG. 1 illustrates a system for creating and accessing a digital wallet,in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 2 illustrates a system for initiating secure purchases, paymentprocessing, and financial transactions using a digital wallet, inaccordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 3 depicts a flowchart illustrating a method for secure paymentprocessing using a user account-affiliated digital wallet, in accordancewith an embodiment.

FIG. 4 depicts a flowchart illustrating a method for secure paymentprocessing using a user account-affiliated digital wallet, in accordancewith an embodiment.

FIG. 5 depicts a flowchart illustrating a method for secure paymentprocessing using a user account-affiliated digital wallet, in accordancewith an embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Some embodiments of this invention, illustrating all its features, willnow be discussed in detail. The words “comprising,” “having,”“containing,” and “including,” and other forms thereof, are intended tobe equivalent in meaning and be open ended in that an item or itemsfollowing any one of these words is not meant to be an exhaustivelisting of such item or items, or meant to be limited to only the listeditem or items.

It must also be noted that as used herein and in the appended claims,the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” include plural references unlessthe context clearly dictates otherwise. Although any systems and methodssimilar or equivalent to those described herein can be used in thepractice or testing of embodiments of the present invention, thepreferred, systems and methods are now described.

Embodiments of the present disclosure will be described more fullyhereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings in which likenumerals represent like elements throughout the several figures, and inwhich example embodiments are shown. Embodiments of the claims may,however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construedas limited to the embodiments set forth herein. The examples set forthherein are non-limiting examples and are merely examples among otherpossible examples.

Additionally, as used herein, the term ‘circuitry’ refers to (a)hardware-only circuit implementations (e.g., implementations in analogcircuitry and/or digital circuitry); (b) combinations of circuits andcomputer program product(s) comprising software and/or firmwareinstructions stored on one or more computer readable memories that worktogether to cause an apparatus to perform one or more functionsdescribed herein; and (c) circuits, such as, for example, amicroprocessor(s) or a portion of a microprocessor(s), that requiresoftware or firmware for operation even if the software or firmware isnot physically present. This definition of ‘circuitry’ applies to alluses of this term herein, including in any claims. As a further example,as used herein, the term ‘circuitry’ also includes an implementationcomprising one or more processors and/or portion(s) thereof andaccompanying software and/or firmware. As another example, the term‘circuitry’ as used herein also includes, for example, a basebandintegrated circuit or applications processor integrated circuit for amobile phone or a similar integrated circuit in a server, a cellularnetwork device, other network device (such as a core network apparatus),field programmable gate array, and/or other computing device.

As defined herein, a “computer-readable storage medium,” which refers toa physical storage medium (e.g., volatile or non-volatile memorydevice), may be differentiated from a “computer-readable transmissionmedium,” which refers to an electromagnetic signal.

Described herein are systems, apparatuses, methods, and computer programproducts for simple and secure initiation of payments and financialtransactions.

According to some embodiments, a user account-affiliated digital walletsystem is provided, the system comprising a user device, a merchantdevice, and means for initiating a payment or other such transaction,such as a transaction initiation device. The transaction initiationdevice may comprise a processor and memory device storing program code.In some embodiments, the memory device and the program code areconfigured, with the processor, to cause the transaction initiationdevice to store at least user account information in a digital wallet.Other information, such as a user's account information for one or moremerchants, authentication indicia, personally identifying information,payment option details, credit and/or debit card details, bank accountinformation, user payment preferences or requirements, merchant paymentpreferences or requirements, and/or the like may also be stored in thedigital wallet. In some embodiments, the transaction initiation devicemay store the digital wallet locally or remotely, in a singular locationor in plural locations. For instance, the digital wallet may store someinformation in an encrypted format while storing other information in anon-encrypted format.

According to some embodiments, the transaction initiation device mayreceive a purchase request, from the user device, another deviceassociated permanently or temporarily with the user, the merchantdevice, another device associated permanently or temporarily with amerchant, an unknown device, or the like. The purchase request can be assimple as including an indication of a payor, an indication of a payee,and a payment amount. The purchase request may alternatively includeother information, such as personally identifying information (PII)associated with the user, a request for authentication indicia from theuser, contextual information about the reason or cause for the payment,or the like. In some embodiments, the purchase request may provide anidentifying value such as a merchant-side account number in lieu of apayor name or other PII. In such an instance, the transaction initiationdevice may query a set of digital wallets or otherwise reference a setof information about plural users to associate the provided identifyingvalue with a particular user. In some embodiments, the payment requestmay include a merchant/payee account information in lieu of a merchantname or other merchant information necessary to carry out the payment ortransaction. In such an instance, the transaction initiation device mayquery the set of digital wallets or a separate merchant dataset toassociate the provided merchant/payee account information with themerchant name or other merchant information necessary to carry out thepayment or transaction. In some embodiments, user payment preferences oruser payment requirements may be stored in the digital wallet orreferenceable by the transaction initiation device during initiation ofthe payment or transaction.

According to some embodiments, the digital wallet may be configured toonly participate in payment or transaction processing for payment tomerchants with which the user/payor has an account, and only forpayments/transactions associated with said account. In some embodiments,the digital wallet may be configured to only participate in financialtransactions when the financial transactions are designated for paymentof an outstanding bill associated with a user account with the payee. Insome embodiments, the transaction initiation device may be configuredto, upon receiving a payment or transaction request, determine if thepayee or merchant indicated in or associated with the payment ortransaction request is a merchant or payee with which the user/payor hasan account.

In some embodiments, even if a purchase request, bill payment request,financial transaction request, or the like, originates from an unknownentity, the transaction initiation device and/or digital wallet may beconfigured to still initiate and/or carry out the purchase, billpayment, financial transaction, or the like. For example, thetransaction initiation device and/or digital wallet may determine, fromthe purchase request, bill payment request, financial transactionrequest, or the like, the identity of the user associated with thedigital wallet, the merchant/payee to which the money or other currencyfor the purchase, bill payment, financial transaction, or the like aredirected, and the amount of money or other currency being requested.Once the transaction initiation device and/or digital wallet determinesthe identity of the user/payor and the identity of the merchant/payee,the transaction initiation device and/or digital wallet can reference adatabase or set of pre-authorized merchant accounts associated with theuser and determine if the merchant/payee identified in the request isassociated with one of the pre-authorized merchant accounts. In aninstance in which the transaction initiation device and/or digitalwallet determines that the merchant/payee identified in the request isassociated with a pre-authorized merchant account, the transactioninitiation device and/or digital wallet can automatically initiate thetransaction or automatically provide all necessary transaction detailsto a payment processor to cause the payment processor to carry out thepurchase, bill payment, financial transaction, or the like.

In other embodiments, the transaction initiation device and/or digitalwallet may be configured to receive, store, retrieve, or otherwisedetermine user payment preferences, user payment requirements, userpayment type requirements, or the like. In other embodiments, thetransaction initiation device and/or digital wallet may be configured toreceive, store, retrieve, or otherwise determine, for one, some, or allmerchants, merchant payment preferences, merchant payment requirements,merchant payment type requirements, or the like. In some embodiments,the user payment preferences may include a particular type of paymentmethod or a particular payment method preferred for use with one, some,or all merchants. In some embodiments, the merchant payment preferencesmay include a particular type of payment method or a particular paymentmethod preferred by one, some, or all merchants.

In another embodiment, a user account-affiliated payment card isprovided. The payment card can have dimensions substantially similar tothat of a conventional credit card or debit card. In some embodiments,the payment card can comprise one or more of: a card number, acardholder name, an expiry date, a security chip, a Europay, MasterCard®and Visa® (EMV®) chip, a magnetic strip, a CVV number, a dynamic CVVnumber, a near field communication (NFC) transmitter, inductive couplingantennas, and/or the like. The payment card can store informationregarding one or more merchant accounts associated with one or moremerchants. The payment card is configured to initiate payment with amerchant associated with the one or more merchant accounts. For example,a user may associate their payment card with one or more merchantaccounts and provide at least one payment method to be stored on thepayment card. A payment method can include another payment card, such asa credit card or a debit card, a bank account, an e-payment account suchas a PayPal® account, a cryptocurrency, an electronic currency, a tokenhaving value, cash, e-wallet funds, non-fungible tokens, a stored-valuecard, electronic bank transfers, Apple Pay®, GooglePay®, AndroidPay®, orthe like. In some embodiments, at least a portion of the digital walletcan be or comprise a pass-through digital wallet or a stored-valuedigital wallet. In some embodiments, a portion of the information storedon the payment card (e.g., on an embedded chip or the like) can beencrypted while other portion(s) of the information stored on thepayment card can be non-encrypted.

By way of example only, a user may use a payment card, such as describedherein, to purchase a product or service, pay a bill or invoice,initiate a financial transaction, or the like. However, according tosome embodiments, the payment card can be user account-affiliated suchthat it is only configured for initiating payments, purchases, orfinancial transactions in association with a merchant account associatedwith the user. The set of merchant information may be dynamicallyupdated to add or remove merchant accounts associated with the user.Since the payment card according to some embodiments is configured toonly initiate payments, purchases, or financial transactions withpre-authorized merchants, and only in regard to accounts at thesepre-authorized merchants that are associated with the user, any personor device that gains unauthorized access to the user's payment cardwould only be able to complete purchases or payments regarding theuser's own accounts. For example, the user may have an account with alocal natural gas supply company, and therefore the local natural gassupply company may be designated as a pre-authorized merchant for theuser's digital wallet and the user's payment card. In an instance inwhich the local natural gas supply company is the only merchantpre-authorized for the user's digital wallet and the user's paymentcard, both the user's digital wallet and the user's payment card aresecured against any transaction with any other merchant, even with othermerchants with which the user has a legitimate account. As such, even ifthe user's digital wallet or the user's payment card was accessed by anunauthorized person or device, the unauthorized person or device wouldonly be able to make payments from any of the user's stored paymentmethods to the user's account with a known merchant, such as the localnatural gas supply company. According to some embodiments, otherfinancial transactions or transactions of value, such as the transfer offunds to an external account, or the transfer of funds between theuser's different payment methods stored at the digital wallet or on thepayment card, the purchase of any product or service with any othermerchant, or any other payments are completely disallowed, even by theuser, no matter what authentication information or other authorizationcommands are provided. In other embodiments, such other financialtransactions that are not payments from a pre-authorized user paymentoption or user account, to a user's account with a known merchant orvendor, may be carried out using the digital wallet, but only using asecond tier of authentication information beyond or in addition to anybasic authentication process required for transactions between a userpayment option stored in the digital wallet and a user's account with aknown merchant based on biller information stored in the wallet.

According to some embodiments, the digital wallet and/or the paymentcard can be configured such that additional merchants and/or additionaluser accounts with merchants can only be authorized for the digitalwallet and/or the payment card through an authorization process thatrequires additional security measures such as two-factor authentication,biometric screening, or the like.

Referring now to FIG. 1 , a block diagram illustrates a system 100 forcreating and accessing a digital wallet, such as a useraccount-affiliated digital wallet, in accordance with variousembodiments. A digital wallet generally includes at least transactioninformation and personal information of a user. The transactioninformation and personal information of a user may comprise billingaddress, shipping address, bank account details, credit card details,debit card details, gift card details, coupon codes, gift vouchers,loyalty points information, and/or the like. Various novel aspects ofthe disclosed system, apparatus, method, and computer program productmay be implemented in a plurality of ways. The following descriptiondescribes the invention according to possible example embodiments.

According to the first example embodiment, the system 100 includes auser device 102, a transaction facilitation device 106, and a merchantdevice 108. Though FIG. 1 depicts only one merchant device 108, it is tobe understood that a plurality of merchant devices, such as merchantservers, merchant chatbots, or the like, can be connected to thetransaction facilitation device 106 that can be accessed according tothe various aspects of the present disclosure. The user device 102, thetransaction facilitation device 106, and the merchant device 108 arecommunicatively coupled with each other by means of a network 104, suchas internet.

The user device 102 enables a user to interact with the merchant device108 relating to a marketplace, service provider, an e-commerce web sitefor browsing through various products or services provided by theserver. The merchant device 108 may in turn be connected to one or moredatabases (not depicted in the figure) for storing information relatedto various products or services that are made available to the user forpurchase. Moreover, the one or more databases connected to the merchantdevice 108 may store information related to the user such as a userprofile.

The user device 102 enables the user to select a product or servicerequired by the user for purchasing. The user device 102 also includesat least one input means and an output means for providing user inputand to display one or more information to the user. The user device 102may include input means such as keyboard, mouse, touch pad, digital pen,voice input device, touch input device, and the like. The user device102 may include output means such as a display, speakers, printer, andthe like. The user device 102 may include one or more storage means suchas a hard disk, main memory, flash memory, cloud based storage, and thelike, that may be coupled with a processor. The user device 102 isconfigured to run an operating system, a software program and one ormore software applications by means of the processor. In anotherembodiment, the user device 102 may include a software component thatcan be included as part of the operating system or can be included lateras a software download. It will be apparent to a person having ordinaryskills in the art that the disclosed embodiments can be implemented fora variety of user devices including, but not limited to, a desktopcomputer, a laptop, a tablet computer, a mobile phone, a smartphone, andthe like. In an aspect, the method described in the present disclosuremay be embedded in one or more applications such as a web browser or anyother applications by means of a software development kit. The userdevice 102 at the time of checkout, i.e., while paying for the selectedproduct or service or bill, may be required to input transactioninformation for executing the payment. Such input of transactioninformation according to an embodiment may be divided into two mainsteps namely authentication/authorization and data extraction. Themethod for authentication and the step of data extraction may beprocessed by a plurality of servers communicatively coupled with theserver executing the payment and therefore requiring the transactioninformation. Where the method described by the present disclosure isstored as a plug-in to the web browser of the user device, the plug-inmay prompt the user to perform the payment transaction through the same.In such a case, the user device 102 by means of such a plug-in or anyother program code may perform the transaction by exchanging informationbetween the transaction facilitation device 106, merchant device 108,and other devices such as an authentication server 110.

The merchant device 108 relates to an account of the user. The merchantdevice 108 may store a digital wallet associated with the user. Themerchant device 108 may relate to one or more accounts associated withthe user, a mobile phone account of the user, and the like. Theauthentication server 110 may be configured to authenticate that theuser conducting the transaction is the user to which the account beingused by the transaction facilitation device 106 to process thetransaction is associated. In some embodiments, to set up thetransaction facilitation device 106 to include payment information oruser account information, the transaction facilitation device 106 maygenerate a one-time password that may be sent to the user's mobile phonenumber or to the user's email that is registered with the user accountpresent in the transaction facilitation device 106. In some embodiments,the transaction facilitation device 106 may require the user to entercertain personal information such as a password associated with theaccount being added, the zip code of the user, mobile phone number, orany other information by which the user may be authenticated. In someembodiments, the transaction facilitation device 106 may require theuser to enter biometric data, such as a fingerprint, facial scan, irisscan, or the like. Upon authorization, the transaction facilitationdevice 106 may or may not provide personal information and transactioninformation of the user based on certain regulatory rules or certainsecurity rules. In some embodiments, the transaction facilitation device106 may provide a first set of information which may be certain personalinformation, transactional information, and the like. In someembodiments, the first set of information provided by the authenticationserver may be a unique token for ascertaining that the user has beenauthenticated and the first information might not comprise any userinformation. In the same regard, the digital wallet may store uniquetokens associated with the user device, the user accounts associatedwith the merchants, the merchants themselves, the user's paymentmethods, or the like.

The transaction facilitation device 106 may store one or more personalinformation regarding the user including user name, user's shippingaddress, user's billing address, email address, phone number(s), creditcard information, bank account information and the like that may beprovided to the merchant device 108 or a payment processor (not shown)for executing the transaction. In some embodiments, the transactionfacilitation device 106 may store and provide all the informationrequired for completing the transaction. However, the transactionfacilitation device 106 may not have all the information required forprocessing a transaction. For example, an authentication server relatedto a mobile phone account of the user may store or automatically procurebilling address information of the user but may not store the shippingaddress of the user. In another example, an authentication serverrelated to a social media account may store the contact details of theuser and may not store the billing information of the user. Even afterauthorization the user information may not be automatically sent to theserver executing the payment which is different from the transactionfacilitation device 106 due to issues such as PCI compliance issues,regulatory issues, security concerns, and the like. Hence, the missingdetails required for a transaction are either retrieved from theauthentication server 110, or retrieved from the merchant device 108. Insome embodiments, the missing details required for a transaction may beprovided by the user. In some embodiments, the transaction facilitationdevice 106 may provide stored information regarding the user, such aspersonally identifying information, that may be used for a transaction,while other information that is missing, such as merchant accountinformation, may be queried, received, or procured from the merchantdevice 108.

The merchant device 108 may maintain certain personal and transactionalinformation of the user. The merchant device 108 may be connected to oneor more secure databases that store the personal and transactionalinformation of the user. The transactional information may include butnot be limited to user's name, user's address, email address, phonenumber(s), and the like. In an example, the merchant device 108 may berelated to one or more e-commerce websites or applications on which theuser is registered. The merchant device 108 may also relate to one ormore utility service providers, government organizations, mobile phoneservice provider, and the like. In an example, the merchant device 108related to an e-commerce website may be contacted upon authenticationfor providing missing details that are required for transaction. In someembodiments, the user may be required to authorize procuring informationfrom the merchant device 108, at least initially. The user may authorizeprocuring information from his e-commerce related accounts, social mediaaccounts, and the like and may not authorize procuring informationdirectly from a bank account server. In some embodiments, thetransaction facilitation device 106 or the merchant device 108 may actas a data aggregator that compiles user profiles with various attributesand personal information. Such information can be retrieved using one ormore attributes as an index. For example, using the mobile phone numberto pull the personal details of the user such as name, address, email,card information, and the like.

Once the user initially authenticates and authorizes procuringinformation from the merchant device 108, information stored in thetransaction facilitation device 106 or one or more databases to whichthe transaction facilitation device 106 is connected may be configuredto initiate transactions as discussed herein. In some embodiments, themerchant device 108 may relate to one or more social media accounts. Insome embodiments, the merchant device 108 may relate to one or moretelecom carrier provider accounts. Upon initial authorization, thepersonal details such as user's name, user's mobile phone number and thetransaction details such as billing address, shipping address, andinformation related to the credit card using which the user usuallytransacts may be procured from the user, the merchant device 108, and/orthe like. In an aspect, distinct second servers may be contacted forextracting different information. Once the required information isinitially procured, the user device 102 may be presented with a promptto confirm the information, thereafter no presentation of the procuredinformation at the user device 102 for verification is needed. In someembodiments, the user may edit the initially procured information as theprocured information may not be the latest information of the user. Insome embodiments, the user may edit the procured information as the usermay need to use a different payment method or a different account forpayment. The information is presented to the user in such a manner thatthe procuring of information seems to be seamless to the user andreduces the time taken for a transaction thereby increasing theefficiency of the server executing the payment process.

According to an embodiment, the user device 102 may comprise of amemory, a processor and a program code stored in the memory, wherein theprocessor is configured for executing the program code. The program codemay comprise an application such as a web application, web browser witha plug-in, or the like. Upon execution of the program code such asplug-in of a web browser, the apparatus may cause the apparatus toreceive a payment request, determine whether the request is a request topay a pre-authorized merchant, and, in an instance in which the requestis a request to pay a pre-authorized merchant, automatically initiatepayment processing or provide sufficient information to a paymentprocessor to cause initiation of payment processing.

Referring now to FIG. 2 , the system 100 is further illustrated,according to an embodiment. As illustrated, the system 100 can comprisea first user device 102 a and a second user device 102 b, both being inoperable communication with a network 104, which may include a networknode, core network, antenna, access network, or the like. The first userdevice 102 a is illustrated as being a mobile telephone and the seconduser device 102 b is illustrated as being a mobile computing device.However, the first and second user devices 102 a, 102 b, may compriseany suitable device for accessing the digital wallet and initiating apurchase, payment, or transaction. Other example examples of userdevices may include smart wearable devices, tablets, desktop computers,cloud computing devices, servers, augmented reality computing devices,virtual reality computing devices, or the like. The first and seconduser devices 102 a, 102 b may be in communication, via the network 104,with the transaction facilitation device 106. The transactionfacilitation device 106 may be connected to one or more databases (notdepicted in the figure) for ascertaining the authenticity ofauthentication information provided either initially or subsequently bythe user device 102 a or 102 b.

The program code stored in the memory of the user device 102 may includeone or more modules such as an authentication module for directing theauthentication server for authenticating the information received fromthe user, an authorization module for enabling the user to authorize oneor more second servers to be queried, an information editor module forenabling the user to edit the information received from one or moreservers, and a transaction module for sending information to themerchant server for processing the transaction.

In an alternate embodiment, the system 100 may enable the merchantdevice 108 for communicating with and directing the transactionfacilitation device 106 to authenticate and the merchant 108 to extractinformation. According to such an embodiment, the merchant device 108enables one or more authentication information to be sent from the userdevice 102 to the transaction facilitation device 106. Upon successfulauthentication, the merchant device 108 may be configured to receive thetransaction and payment processing information from the transactionfacilitation device 106. The merchant device 108 may then process thetransaction. The merchant device 108 may be connected to one or moredatabases (not depicted in the figure) that may store user, user device,merchant, payment method and type, and/or transaction information forfuture use. In an aspect, the set of information may be stored under auser profile of the user within the digital wallet. The merchant device108 may include a program code that may be executed by one or moreprocessors of the merchant device 108. The program code may include oneor more modules such as an authentication module for directing theauthentication server for authenticating the information initiallyreceived from the user, an authorization module for enabling the user bymeans of the user device 102 to authorize one or more second servers tobe queried, an information editor module for enabling the user by meansof the user device 102 to edit the information received from one or moreservers, and a transaction module for processing the transaction basedon the information selected or added by the user.

Consolidated Digital Biller/Merchant and Payments Wallet

In some embodiments, the digital wallet may be a consolidated digitalbiller/merchant and payments wallet. Said otherwise, in someembodiments, the digital wallet may comprise i) information about one ormore user accounts with one or more billers, utilities, vendors, and/ormerchants, or the like, and may further comprise ii) information aboutone or more user payment options such as a user bank account, a user'scredit card, a user's debit card, a user's pre-paid card, a user'scryptocurrency account, a digital cash application, a non-fungibletoken, a unique payment token, a user account with a third party paymentprocessor, or the like.

In some embodiments, the digital wallet may be actively curated bybillers, utilities, vendors and/or merchants, or the like (referred toherein collectively as “merchant”). In some embodiments, a merchant mayprovide information about the merchant and the user's account with themerchant to the digital wallet at the time of establishment of thedigital wallet for the user. In some embodiments, a merchant may provideinformation about the merchant and the user's account with the merchantto the digital wallet after the time of establishment of the digitalwallet for the user, at a time when the user or the merchant initiates aprocess for authentication of the merchant and the user's account withthe digital wallet. In some embodiments, a merchant may provideinformation about the merchant and the user's account on an ongoingbasis, an iterative basis, an as-needed basis, an ad hoc basis, uponrequest by the user, upon request by the digital wallet, as initiated bythe merchant, and/or the like.

The information about the merchant and the user's account with themerchant may not be known by the merchant in all situations. As such,the merchant may initially provide a default set of information aboutthe merchant and the user's account with the merchant, and then thedigital wallet may request additional information needed by the digitalwallet and/or the merchant may request confirmation about whether thedigital wallet has sufficient information to perform transactions, usingthe digital wallet, between one of the user's payment options and theuser's account with the merchant. For example, a merchant, such as alocal natural gas utility, may initially provide an account numberassociated with the user's account at the merchant, a name of afinancial institution with which the merchant has an account, an accountnumber associated with the merchant's account at the financialinstitution, and a routing number for electronic transfer of funds intothe merchant's account at the financial institution. In the event thatthe digital wallet identifies other information required for the digitalwallet to complete transactions between a payment option stored in thedigital wallet and the merchant's account at the financial institution,the digital wallet may request, from the merchant and/or the financialinstitution with which the merchant has an account, said otherinformation.

Likewise, the user may initiate an authentication process for a paymentoption, such as the user's credit card, in the digital wallet orotherwise, and may provide an initial set of information about thecredit card to the digital wallet, such as one or more of: a credit cardcompany name, a credit card number, an expiration date of the creditcard, an account-holder name as printed on the credit card, a securitycode (e.g., CVV) printed on the credit card, a billing addressassociated with the credit card, and/or the like. In an instance inwhich the digital wallet determines that some of the above initial setof information and/or other information is needed for processingtransactions between the payment option and a merchant, the digitalwallet can request the additional information directly from the creditcard information based upon the information provided by the user. Insome embodiments, the initial set of information about the credit cardassociated with the user can be provided by the credit card companyinstead of the user, such as in response to the user requesting that thedigital wallet add the credit card to the digital wallet as a paymentoption. In some embodiments, upon receiving such a request for adding apayment option at the digital wallet, the digital wallet can initiate athird party authentication process or an authentication process carriedout by the credit card company, which may request authenticationinformation, such as a username and password for a credit card companyaccount affiliated with the user, after which the credit card companymay provide all other information needed by the digital wallet.

After receiving the information from the merchant or payment option, thedigital wallet may store the information in the digital walletpermanently, for a pre-determined period of time, until an expirationdate of the payment option, or otherwise. In some embodiments, thedigital wallet may accept manual or other input of information about theuser, a user account, a merchant, a payment option, or the like from theuser via a user device, for example. In some embodiments, the user mayaccess the digital wallet via a web portal, an application, a browser,an application programming interface, a third party user interface, amerchant website, a merchant application, a payment option website, apayment option application, or the like. The digital wallet can behosted on, reside on, be stored on, be accessed via, or otherwise engagewith a user device.. The digital wallet can be accessed by a user tofacilitate completing a transaction, such as between a payment optionfor which the user has information stored in the digital wallet and auser's account with a particular merchant for which the user hasinformation stored in the digital wallet. In some embodiments, thedigital wallet may be consolidated, while in other embodiments thedigital wallet may be at least partially distributed, such as throughbifurcation of information in the digital wallet. In some embodiments,the digital wallet may be at least partially fragmented and/or portable,such as through discrete storage of a part of the digital wallet or acopy of the digital wallet in a memory or storage device. In someembodiments, the digital wallet may comprise one or more editableportions and one or more non-editable portions that are createdespecially for a particular merchant or payment option, and which, ifthe user, merchant, or payment option entity deauthorizes or removes theuser's account with the merchant or the payment option from the digitalwallet, a respective non-editable portion of the digital wallet issimply decoupled or disassociated from the digital wallet withoutaffecting the other one or more non-editable portions and the one ormore editable portions. In some embodiments, non-editable portions ofthe digital wallet may be able to be queried by merchants, paymentoption entities, the user, and/or the like, while remaining protectedagainst unwanted hacking or the like.

In some embodiments, the information stored in the digital wallet may beprovided by unauthenticated, single direction upload of documents,bills, payment option statement, or the like. For example, the user maytake a digital picture of a physical bill that they receive in the mail,which may have been received, for instance, from a local natural gasutility with which the user has an account. The user may upload thisdigital picture of the physical bill, e.g., via smartphone, laptop, orthe like, to the digital wallet directly or via any suitable portal,application, browser, or other means for accessing the digital wallet.In some embodiments, the digital wallet may save a digital copy of thephysical bill or conduct optical character recognition, or the like, todetermine the various fields of the physical bill and the content ineach of the various fields. In some embodiments, the digital wallet maycomprise or be in communication with one or more databases, such as apayment option information database, a merchant account informationdatabase, a user information database, a combined payment option andmerchant account information database, a combined user, payment option,and merchant account information database, or the like (collectively“databases”). In some embodiments, the digital wallet may store opticalcharacter recognition data from the physical bill into one or moredatabases, or may review information about the local natural gas utility(merchant) and the user's account with this merchant in the one or moredatabases linked to the digital wallet and determine whether theinformation provided on the physical bill matches that stored in the oneor more databases, check for additional fields or data that arepresented on the physical bill but which are not stored in thedatabases, and/or the like. The digital wallet may update the merchantinformation and/or user account information for that merchant in the oneor more databases accordingly.

In some embodiments, the user may upload a digital picture of a physicalbill just the first time a physical bill is received from the merchant,which the digital wallet can interpret as a request to establish thatmerchant as an authorized merchant in the digital wallet. By simplyuploading the physical bill to the digital wallet, the user initiatesthe authentication process by the digital wallet program, which maycarry out some or all of that process without further user input orauthentication. In some embodiments, the user may trigger theauthentication of a payment option in the digital wallet by accessing amerchant site and attempting to carry out a transaction using thatpayment option by selecting that payment option from a menu of availableoptions, for example. When the user is asked to directly provideauthentication indicia, such as a username and/or password, the digitalwallet or a widget, add-on, application, or the like that is operable tobe initiated when the user devices receives a request to provide suchauthentication indicia, may intervene directly with the user, directlywith the payment option entity, and/or provides a splash page or pop-upthat asks the user to sign in to their pre-existing account with thepayment option entity or to create a new account with the payment optionentity. Once the user enters their authentication indicia to sign intothe payment option, or once they create an account with the paymentoption entity and subsequently sign in via the splash page or pop-up,the digital wallet stores that log-in information or other suchauthentication indicia associated with the user's payment option entityaccount. The digital wallet can then query a payment option entityserver or the like for additional relevant information regarding theuser's payment option entity account. For instance, when the user signsinto their account with the payment option entity, for example a creditcard company with which the user holds an account, the digital walletmay store the username and password associated with that payment optionentity account, but the digital wallet may need additional informationnot initially provided, such as the credit card number, expiration date,security code/CVV, and/or the like. The digital wallet may be configuredto carry out a query of the payment option entity server or the like toretrieve that missing information, or may engage with a chatbot or thelike to request that information. Because the digital wallet stores userinformation and information about the user's accounts with merchants,the digital wallet can directly engage with merchants, payment optionentities, or the like, and navigate further authentication steps, whererequired, by providing the necessary information about the user or theuser's account with a merchant or payment option entity to advance theauthentication process. In some embodiments, the further querying andauthentication processes may occur in the background and/or otherwisewithout requiring further input by the user.

In some embodiments, other documents besides physical bills may bephotographed, scanned, digitized, or otherwise provided to the digitalwallet. For instance, a user may want to upload a copy of their driver'slicense, passport, birth certificate, or other personally identifyingdocuments to the digital wallet. In some embodiments, when the useruploads such document to the digital wallet, they may indicate that thedocuments are sensitive or are to remain private, or the digital wallet,when scraping each document for information, may determine based uponthe content and the context of the document provided, whether theinformation provided and/or the digital document itself needs to beprivacy protected or the like. In some embodiments, the digital walletmay store different parts of the document and/or different parts of theinformation scraped from the document in different locations, such as indiscrete portions of the digital wallet, in an encrypted or otherwisesecure sub-portion of the digital wallet, and/or the like. The digitalwallet may also or alternatively hash, encrypt, privacy protect, orotherwise protect the digital image of the document and/or the dataitself and then store that protected digital image and/or informationabout the digital document in a centralizes database, server, cloudcomputing environment, and/or locally on the user's device(s) as a cacheassociated with the digital wallet. Such storage of the user'spersonally identifying documents in the digital wallet may providemultiple benefits, such as that the user can access from anywhere a copyof these important documents, the digital wallet can provide informationfrom these documents or the documents themselves when necessary forestablishing/authenticating a connection between the digital wallet andpayment options/merchants, and can act as a digital repository fordocuments that may be presented now or in the future in digital-onlyformat. An example might be that the user uploads a picture of the mainphoto page and biographical information page of their passport to thedigital wallet—the digital wallet scrapes that image for informationthat it stores in the database to assist with facilitating furthertransactions, and/or the like, and generates an authentication token ordigital version of the users passport, for the user to quickly accessand present via their smartphone or the like, when boarding an airplaneor when they are otherwise required to present it. In some embodiments,the digital wallet can generate a unique digital passport or uniquetoken recognizable by a laser or optical scanner and processor system,e.g., at the Travel Security Administration (TSA) before taking aflight. The unique token can be generated in accordance with a formatstandardized across the industry, by TSA, by another agency or the like.The unique token may be received upon request by the digital wallet froma governmental agency network/system for automatically generating suchtokens, in which case the digital wallet can carry out such a requestprocess in the background without requiring the user to participate.

According to another example, after the user purchases a new car, theuser will likely need to add the new car to their car insurance plan,and perhaps remove the old car if it is being traded in. In someembodiments, the user can take a photograph of the bill of sale, title,registration card, the car's vehicle identification number (VIN), and/orthe like, and upload those images to the digital wallet. The user mayalready have associated their car insurance plan for one or more othervehicles with the digital wallet. When the digital wallet determinesthat the user has purchased a vehicle and needs to add that vehicle totheir car insurance plan, the digital wallet may initiate an automatedprocess, e.g., with a chatbot hosted by the car insurance company, toadd the vehicle to the user's car insurance plan, provide all necessaryinformation to the car insurance company in order for the car insurancecompany to be able to add the car to the car insurance plan, and maythen receive and store the new vehicle insurance card/card informationin the digital wallet for ease of access by the user. Then, should theuser get pulled over, the user can access their car insurance planinformation, proof of insurance card, and/or the like by simplyaccessing their digital wallet (e.g., from the application in theirsmartphone), to provide proof of insurance to the officer upon request.Likewise, if the user has a car accident, the user can access their carinsurance information in the digital wallet, and can provide thatinformation to the other driver(s) when necessary.

In some embodiments, after the merchant creates a new account associatedwith a user, the merchant may provide the user with a link, e.g., viaSMS text, email, phone call, and/or the like, to the digital walletprogram/application such that, if the user does not yet have a digitalwallet, the user can create a digital wallet for themselves and theinitiating merchant's information will already be pre-loaded into thedigital wallet, including the user's account information with thatmerchant. In an instance in which the user already has a digital wallet,instead of generating a new digital wallet when a merchant sends theuser such a link to initiate a digital wallet, the information providedin the merchant's digital wallet link/recommendation may be synchronizedwith that information for the same merchant that is already stored inthe user's digital wallet.

In some embodiments, if the user already has a digital wallet and, e.g.,they have already stored plural preferred payment options in the digitalwallet, the user may provide their digital wallet identification numberto the merchant at the time that the user establishes an account withthat merchant such that the merchant can actively provide relevantmerchant and user account information into the digital wallet and querythe digital wallet for any additional information needed to assist withfinalizing account set-up for the user.

In some embodiments, the digital wallet may be able to synchronizercertain information across some or all merchants and payment options.For example, when a user changes banks, the new bank may query thedigital wallet to initiate the change of bank account/bank informationwith any merchants and payment option entities associated with theuser's digital wallet. For example, the digital wallet may be configuredto generate a form email to all merchants notifying them of such achange. Other changes might include a change of address, a name change,notifications by a family member of merchants and/or payment optionentities that the user is deceased, etc.

In some embodiments, communication between the user and a merchant, forexample, may be initiated via the digital wallet since the digitalwallet can store information about the merchant such as the direct routefor interaction with the merchant's chatbot, the telephone number atwhich the user can reach the merchant, etc. One example would be thatthe user, when they purchase a new washer and dryer from a hardwarestore, can upload digital images of the bill of sale and warrantyinformation to their digital wallet. Then, down the road a few years, ifthe washer or dryer stopes working or seems to need maintenance, theuser can access their warranty and bill of sale directly in the digitalwallet, can initiate a telephone call with the hardware store via thedigital wallet, for example, and/or can complete an automated requestfor service by sending a message to the hardware store and providing thebill of sale/warranty information, if necessary.

In some embodiments, the user may provide information/photographs ofsuch documents via email, text message, direct upload, and/or the like.This Wallet will have a Bill and bill payment specific email attachedwhere the user can provide this email to all billers or Paymentus walletwill automatically inform the biller to receive all payments and billingrelated notifications.

In some embodiments, the digital wallet may be in operable communicationwith an email application where the user receivers their email, and maybe configured to intercept all electronic bill payment notifications,electronic bill payment reminders, electronic bill payment confirmationemails, and/or the like. In some embodiments, the digital wallet canorganize such notifications and emails, and can calendar automatic billpayment, payment reminders, investment contributions, and the like,either in the background without requiring participation by the user, orin an associated/available calendar associated with the user's email.For example, the digital wallet may organize emails/notifications acrosssome or all merchants and/or payment option entities according to one ormore categories, such as: bills, payment reminders, paymentconfirmation, notification of account or user information change,service/repair appointments, expiring payment cards, etc.

In some embodiments, the digital wallet may comprise a merchants/billerssection, a payment solution entity space, a documents/informationdatabase query interface, and/or the like. In some embodiments,information associated with past bill pay, scheduled bill pay, expectedbill pay, and/or the like may be easily queried by the user by searchingfor example for “Duke Power” in a search bar located within themerchants/billers section of the digital wallet, for example. Such asearch of the digital wallet by merchant name, for example, will returninformation about the merchant, past payment events associated with themerchant, communication between the user and merchant, and/or the like.

In some embodiments, the digital wallet pay use artificial intelligence,machine learning, and/or the like to read all relevant notifications andemails, schedule recurring or an ad hoc bill payment events according toone or more default preferences or one or more user preferences.

In some embodiments, a unique email address, a unique universal recordslocator (URL), or the like may be generated for each digital wallet suchthat the digital wallet may relay through, or forward to the uniqueemail address, all merchant and/or payment option entity correspondence.As such, instead of providing their local natural gas utility with theirown email address, the user can provide the unique email addressassociated with the digital wallet, which the user may also accessdirectly via the digital wallet or otherwise, and the digital walletprogram can directly interpret, categorize, and process incomingcorrespondence from merchants and/or payment option entities.

In some embodiments, the digital wallet may be configured to storeand/or generate one or more digital currencies. For example, the digitalwallet may generate or store a user account-affiliated digital currencywhich may have a value at least partially independent of the value ofother currencies, or the value of the user account-affiliate digitalcurrency may track with the value of an existing currency, for examplethe U.S. Dollar. In some embodiments, the user account-affiliateddigital currency may be similar to other blockchain-enabled cryptocurrencies or payment options that relies upon a distributed ledger forauthentication and valuation. In some embodiments, the useraccount-affiliated digital currency may be freely usable withoutrequiring any additional time for authentication or the like, butrequires synchronous authentication by the digital wallet to be used ina financial transaction, such that the digital wallet can manage thelisting of pre-authenticated merchants in near real-time and onlyauthorize the use of the unique, user account-affiliated digitalcurrency for transactions only with authorized merchants.

In some embodiments, some or all of the digital wallet may be associatedwith a physical chip card that is configured to be used only fortransactions with pre-authorized merchants. In some embodiments, sincethe physical card can only be used to initiate transactions between apre-authorized payment solution and a pre-authorized merchant, if thephysical card is stolen or lost, the worst that can happen is that anunauthorized person transfers money between a user-affiliated paymentoption/account and a user-affiliated merchant.

In some embodiments, a new digital currency is provided for makingpayments, which may be called BillCoin, PayCoin, OmniCoin, ConsoliCoin,UniCoin, MonoCoin, OneCoin, SelectCoin, CentralCoin, ClusterCoin,CombiCoin, BillToken, PayToken, OmniToken, ConsoliToken, UniToken,MonoToken, OneToken, SelecToken, CentralToken, ClusterToken, CombiToken,and/or the like (collectively “BillCoin”). In some embodiments, the newdigital currency can take a digital form, can be issued or generated bya centralized developer, sold or exchanged among users, re-sold to thedeveloper, used and accepted by certain merchants, exchanged for one ormore other currencies (digital or otherwise), stored on any form ofmemory device, inspected and/or added to by a processor, transferredbetween one or more user devices, integrity protected, encrypted,cryptographically secured, and/or the like.

In some embodiments, BillCoin, can be purchased from an electronicexchange, market, shop, storefront, retail store, interface, vendor, orthe like. In some embodiments, BillCoin can take an electronic form andcan include one or more electronic files comprising bits that storeinformation about the type of currency, amount of currency, generationand sales or transfer history, and/or the like. In some embodiments,BillCoin can be configured to only be used for transactions withmerchants authenticated in the digital wallet, or sometimes only aportion of merchants authenticated in the digital wallet. In cases wherea user wants to transact BillCoin with a merchant and the merchant doesnot receive payments in BillCoin, Paymentus or a third-party can receivethe BillCoin from the user, exchange the BillCoin for an acceptedcurrency or form, and transfer payment to merchant in the acceptedcurrency or form. One form of currency may be exchanged within thedigital wallet with another form of currency, such that a user can electto pay with a particular currency and, in an instance in which themerchant does not accept that particular currency, the digital walletcan automatically convert the particular currency to another currencythat is accepted by the merchant or convert the particular currency toanother currency that is accepted by the merchant upon request to do soby the user.

In some embodiments, each unit of, or discrete, BillCoin may be assigneda unique identification code and be tracked in a ledger, such as adistributed ledger. In some embodiments, a Wallet ID associated with theuser's digital wallet account may be associated with the uniqueidentification code of the BillCoin.

In some embodiments, the BillCoin may comprise one or more applicationfiles, one or more data files, one or more coin files, one or more tokenfiles, or the like (collectively “BillCoin file”). In some embodiments,the BillCoin file can have a file structure for storing informationabout the BillCoin. For example, the file structure may include a headercontaining header information such as the unique identification code. Insome embodiments, the file structure can comprise one or more payloadssuch as a number (integer and/or fraction) of BillCoin stored in theBillCoin file, a blockchain ledger, a distributed ledger (public orprivate), and/or the like. In some embodiments, a pre-set and staticnumber of BillCoin may be developed, mined, coded, generated, orotherwise created initially with no addition of BillCoin to the totalBillCoin marketplace after that time. In some embodiments, one or moreBillCoin may be created initially and then one or more other BillCoincan be developed, mined, coded, generated, or otherwise created at oneor more later dates (whether on fixed dates, dynamically determineddates, within pre-determined windows of time, and/or the like).

In some embodiments, the BillCoin file may comprise a ledger having adata structure of blocks, the ledger being a file which is public,updated continuously, and synchronized across all BillCoin files at somepre-determined frequency. In some embodiments, the first transactionevent of a BillCoin that is written into the ledger is the a genesisblock or “0^(th)” block. The genesis block may permanently indicate thedate and time of creation of the BillCoin. The ledger may, uponsubsequent exchange, sale, transaction, or transfer between users, beamended to include a subsequent block or “n^(th)” block that isimmediately downstream and flows from the genesis block. Each block mayinclude a hash of the previous block or all prior blocks up the chain tothe genesis block. In some embodiments, such as when the BillCoin can befractionalized, a plurality of blocks (two or more) can flow from eachblock of the blockchain and the hash of prior blocks may include evenblocks that are not up the chain but on parallel legs of the chain. Insome embodiments, the hash of prior blocks in an instant block (anyparticular block) may be more like an imaging or mapping of the entireblockchain structure at the point of generation of the instant block. Insome embodiments, the instant block of the blockchain may comprise ahash of the immediately upstream or previous block and separately atransaction root sequence or mapping of the entire blockchain at thetime of generation of the instant block. In some embodiments, theinstant block may comprise a timestamp (date and time) and/or a locationstamp (IP address, physical location, IMAP/MAP, a unique name ofgenerating entity, unique name of initial exchange or storefront at timeof generation or initial transaction, or the like). In some embodiments,the In some embodiments, the ledger in an instant BillCoin file (anyparticular BillCoin file) may be updated each time any transaction ofany BillCoin, plurality of BillCoin, or fraction of a BillCoin occurs.In some embodiments, the ledger may be updated only for BillCoin filesthat are involved in a transaction. In some embodiments, a centralizedledger may be kept instead of, or in addition to, the decentralizedledger of transactions. In some embodiments, BillCoin files may store aDigital Wallet identification (number, username, user's legal name,BillCoin exchange username, etc.) associated with the current ownerand/or any past owners of the BillCoin or fractional BillCoin. In someembodiments, BillCoins and/or fractional BillCoins can be combined bymerging the respective BillCoin files into a single BillCoin file. Insome embodiments, a part of a BillCoin or a part of a fractionalBillCoin can be spent, sold, or transferred from a user to another useror a merchant, for example, while the user retains another part of theBillCoin or another part of the fractional BillCoin—in which case twonew BillCoin files can be generated from the original BillCoin fileassociated with the BillCoin or fractional BillCoin prior to saidtransaction of a part of the BillCoin or fractional BillCoin.

In some embodiments, a BillCoin file may include a program or codingthat allows the BillCoin to only be stored in the digital wallet. Insome embodiments, the BillCoin file may include a program or coding thatallows the BillCoin to only be stored in the digital wallet of the usercurrently registered in the BillCoin file as owning the BillCoin. Insome embodiments, the BillCoin file may include a program or coding thatallows the BillCoin to only be transferred between digital wallets(e.g., Paymentus digital wallets), and/or between a digital walletstoring the BillCoin and merchants being stored as pre-authorizedmerchants in the digital wallet storing the BillCoin, payment entitiesbeing stored as pre-authorized payment entities in the digital wallet, aBillCoin exchange or storefront (e.g., Paymentus' BillCoin Exchange)and/or a pre-authorized third party.

In some embodiments, a user of the digital wallet may be a person thatregisters for the digital wallet. In some embodiments, the user mustprovide certain information at time of registering a new digital wallet,such as their legal name, their mailing address, their billing address,their social security number or other such identifier (driver's licensenumber, passport number, identification card number, etc.), and/or thelike. In some embodiments, the digital wallet may thereafter be accessedby the user by way of a user device, such as a smartphone, a laptop, atablet, a desktop, a smart television, a user internet-of-things (IoT)device, a smart speaker, a smart assistant, a pre-authorized merchant'spoint of sale (POS) interface, a payment entity's POS interface, a POSinterface of a BillCoin exchange and/or an authorized third party, a website of a pre-authorized merchant, a web site of a pre-authorizedpayment entity, a web site of the BillCoin exchange, a web site of apre-authorized third party, and/or the like.

In some embodiments, to initiate a transaction, the user may indicate amerchant or user account with a merchant to which the user would like totransfer a payment, and the amount being paid/transferred, and thedigital wallet can complete the rest of the transaction based on theinformation stored in the database(s). In some embodiments, the user canassociated a smart device, such as a smart phone, virtual assistant,voice assistant, and/or the like, to have temporary or persistent accessto the digital wallet such that the user can give textual or vocalcomments such as “pay $100 from my default bank account to Duke Powerfor my electric bill this month” and the digital wallet can interpretfrom that textual or verbal request, who the biller is, what the amountis, and what payment option the user is requesting, if any. In someembodiments, the digital wallet may store merchant preferences such aswhich payment option or options is(are) preferred by each merchant, anypayment options that are strictly disallowed by a merchant (e.g., if anydo not accept a cryptocurrency or the like, for example, etc. In someembodiments, if the digital wallet cannot initiate the transactionbetween the payment option entity and the merchant either based on alack of information or a technical issue, the digital wallet mayinitiate a call to an interactive voice response system or a call centeroperated by the merchant to proceed with carrying out the transactionbased on the user's initial request. Some or all of these steps may becarried out without requiring active participation by the user. In someembodiments, if the digital wallet or virtual assistant require userparticipation based on particular circumstances of a transaction, thedigital wallet may alert the user that the user is needed to participatein a phone call with a call center operator in a call center operated bythe merchant, such as by conferencing in the user on their mobile phone,forwarding the call to their mobile phone, dropping into the user'ssmart speaker, and/or the like.

In some embodiments, the digital wallet can be configured for recurringpayments, as a default payment option, and/or the like. In someembodiments, the digital wallet may use machine learning or the like toassist with or facilitate transactions. In some embodiments, the digitalwallet may be accessed by a user by way of their smart speaker or othersuch device, and the user may simply ask that a certain bill be paidwith respect to a certain pre-authorized merchant or that another suchtransaction takes plate. For example, if a user asks their smart speakerto “please pay my current electricity bill,” the smart speaker, which isalready associated with and has access to the digital wallet, may formatand send such a request to the digital wallet in any number of forms orformats suitable for communicating the request to the digital wallet,and the digital wallet, which already is associated with the user'spre-authorized electricity provider and with one or more pre-authorizedpayment entities, may select the correct pre-authorized payment entitybased upon previous similar transactions or user/merchant preferences,and initiate transfer of the correct amount (known from the latest billstored from the user's pre-authorized electricity provider, a digitalcopy of which may be stored in the digital wallet or accessed by thedigital wallet) to the user's pre-authorized electricity provider in acorrect form and format, indicated, earmarked, or otherwise denoted forpayment of the user's latest electricity bill.

Referring now to FIG. 3 , a flowchart illustrates a method 10 foraccessing a digital wallet in accordance with an embodiment. At 11, themethod can comprise storing, in a digital wallet associated with a user,information regarding one or more payment options associated with theuser, and information regarding one or more merchant accounts associatedwith the user. At 12, the method can further comprise receiving arequest to initiate a payment between the user and a payee. At 13, themethod can further comprise determining, based upon at least theinformation regarding one or more merchant accounts associated with theuser, whether the payee is associated with a particular merchant accountof the one or more merchant accounts associated with the user. At 14,the method can further comprise in an instance in which the payee isassociated with a particular merchant account of the one or moremerchant accounts associated with the user, initiating the payment tothe particular merchant account according to one of the one or morepayment options associated with the user. At 15, the method can,optionally, further comprise storing user payment preferences associatedwith the one or more merchant accounts and the one or more paymentoptions. At 16, the method can, optionally, further comprisedetermining, based upon at least the user payment preferences, aparticular payment option from among the one or more payment options tobe used for the payment. At 17, the method can, optionally, furthercomprise providing, to a payment processor, sufficient informationregarding the particular payment option from among the one or morepayment options to cause the payment processor to carry out a financialtransfer between the particular payment option associated with the userand the particular merchant account of the one or more merchant accountsassociated with the user.

Referring now to FIG. 4 , a flowchart illustrates a method 20 foraccessing a digital wallet in accordance with an embodiment. At 21, themethod can comprise storing at least payor information, authenticationinformation, and account information associated with a payor. At 22, themethod can further comprise storing at least payee informationassociated with one or more payees. At 23, the method can comprisereceiving, from a payee device or a payor device, a request to initiatea payment, the request comprising the payor information, the payeeinformation associated with a particular payee of the one or morepayees, and payment information regarding the payment. At 24, the methodcan further comprise determining, based at least upon the payorinformation, the payee information associated with a particular payee ofthe one or more payees, the authentication information, the accountinformation, and payment information regarding the payment, and furtherbased upon one of payor preferences or payee preferences, whether thepayment is with a pre-approved payee from among the one or more payees.At 25, the method can further comprise in an instance in which thedetermination is in the affirmative, initiating the payment by providingthe payment information regarding the payment, the payor information,the payee information associated with the particular payee of the one ormore payees, the authentication information, the account information,and the payment information regarding the payment to a paymentprocessor.

Referring now to FIG. 5 , a flowchart illustrates a method 30 foraccessing a digital wallet in accordance with an embodiment. At 31, themethod can comprise storing, in a digital wallet associated with a user,a set of digital wallet data associated with the user. At 32, the methodcan comprise receive a request to initiate a payment between the userand the merchant, the request comprising at least. At 33, the method cancomprise determining, based at least upon the indication of the payor,the indication of the payee, and the set of digital wallet data storedin the digital wallet, whether the payment being requested is to apre-approved merchant account from among the plurality of merchantaccounts. At 34, the method can comprise in an instance in which thedetermination is in the affirmative, automatically initiating thepayment. At 35, the method can, optionally, comprise in an instance inwhich the determination is in the affirmative, automatically initiatethe payment by providing at least a portion of the set of digital walletdata stored in the digital wallet and the payment amount to a paymentprocessor. At 36, the method can, optionally, comprise in an instance inwhich the determination is in the affirmative, provide a notification toone or both of a user device associated with the payor or a merchantdevice associated with the payee that the payment has been initiated.

Described herein are systems, apparatuses, methods, and computer programproducts for simple and secure initiation of payments and financialtransactions.

According to some embodiments, a user account-affiliated digital walletsystem is provided, the system comprising a user device, a merchantdevice, and means for initiating a payment or other such transaction,such as a transaction initiation device. The transaction initiationdevice may comprise a processor and memory device storing program code.In some embodiments, the memory device and the program code areconfigured, with the processor, to cause the transaction initiationdevice to store at least user account information in a digital wallet.Other information, such as a user's account information for one or moremerchants, authentication indicia, personally identifying information,payment option details, credit and/or debit card details, bank accountinformation, user payment preferences or requirements, merchant paymentpreferences or requirements, and/or the like may also be stored in thedigital wallet. In some embodiments, the transaction initiation devicemay store the digital wallet locally or remotely, in a singular locationor in plural locations. For instance, the digital wallet may store someinformation in an encrypted format while storing other information in anon-encrypted format.

According to some embodiments, the transaction initiation device mayreceive a purchase request, from the user device, another deviceassociated permanently or temporarily with the user, the merchantdevice, another device associated permanently or temporarily with amerchant, an unknown device, or the like. The purchase request can be assimple as including an indication of a payor, an indication of a payee,and a payment amount. The purchase request may alternatively includeother information, such as personally identifying information (PII)associated with the user, a request for authentication indicia from theuser, contextual information about the reason or cause for the payment,or the like. In some embodiments, the purchase request may provide anidentifying value such as a merchant-side account number in lieu of apayor name or other PII. In such an instance, the transaction initiationdevice may query a set of digital wallets or otherwise reference a setof information about plural users to associate the provided identifyingvalue with a particular user. In some embodiments, the payment requestmay include a merchant/payee account information in lieu of a merchantname or other merchant information necessary to carry out the payment ortransaction. In such an instance, the transaction initiation device mayquery the set of digital wallets or a separate merchant dataset toassociate the provided merchant/payee account information with themerchant name or other merchant information necessary to carry out thepayment or transaction. In some embodiments, user payment preferences oruser payment requirements may be stored in the digital wallet orreferenceable by the transaction initiation device during initiation ofthe payment or transaction.

According to some embodiments, the digital wallet may be configured toonly participate in payment or transaction processing for payment tomerchants with which the user/payor has an account, and only forpayments/transactions associated with said account. In some embodiments,the digital wallet may be configured to only participate in financialtransactions when the financial transactions are designated for paymentof an outstanding bill associated with a user account with the payee. Insome embodiments, the transaction initiation device may be configuredto, upon receiving a payment or transaction request, determine if thepayee or merchant indicated in or associated with the payment ortransaction request is a merchant or payee with which the user/payor hasan account.

In some embodiments, even if a purchase request, bill payment request,financial transaction request, or the like, originates from an unknownentity, the transaction initiation device and/or digital wallet may beconfigured to still initiate and/or carry out the purchase, billpayment, financial transaction, or the like. For example, thetransaction initiation device and/or digital wallet may determine, fromthe purchase request, bill payment request, financial transactionrequest, or the like, the identity of the user associated with thedigital wallet, the merchant/payee to which the money or other currencyfor the purchase, bill payment, financial transaction, or the like aredirected, and the amount of money or other currency being requested.Once the transaction initiation device and/or digital wallet determinesthe identity of the user/payor and the identity of the merchant/payee,the transaction initiation device and/or digital wallet can reference adatabase or set of pre-authorized merchant accounts associated with theuser and determine if the merchant/payee identified in the request isassociated with one of the pre-authorized merchant accounts. In aninstance in which the transaction initiation device and/or digitalwallet determines that the merchant/payee identified in the request isassociated with a pre-authorized merchant account, the transactioninitiation device and/or digital wallet can automatically initiate thetransaction or automatically provide all necessary transaction detailsto a payment processor to cause the payment processor to carry out thepurchase, bill payment, financial transaction, or the like.

In other embodiments, the transaction initiation device and/or digitalwallet may be configured to receive, store, retrieve, or otherwisedetermine user payment preferences, user payment requirements, userpayment type requirements, or the like. In other embodiments, thetransaction initiation device and/or digital wallet may be configured toreceive, store, retrieve, or otherwise determine, for one, some, or allmerchants, merchant payment preferences, merchant payment requirements,merchant payment type requirements, or the like. In some embodiments,the user payment preferences may include a particular type of paymentmethod or a particular payment method preferred for use with one, some,or all merchants. In some embodiments, the merchant payment preferencesmay include a particular type of payment method or a particular paymentmethod preferred by one, some, or all merchants. In some embodiments,the

In another embodiment, a user account-affiliated payment card isprovided. The payment card can have dimensions substantially similar tothat of a conventional credit card or debit card. In some embodiments,the payment card can comprise one or more of: a card number, acardholder name, an expiry date, a security chip, a Europay, MasterCard®and Visa® (EMV®) chip, a magnetic strip, a CVV number, a dynamic CVVnumber, a near field communication (NFC) transmitter, inductive couplingantennas, and/or the like. The payment card can store informationregarding one or more merchant accounts associated with one or moremerchants. The payment card is configured to initiate payment with amerchant associated with the one or more merchant accounts. For example,a user may associate their payment card with one or more merchantaccounts and provide at least one payment method to be stored on thepayment card. A payment method can include another payment card, such asa credit card or a debit card, a bank account, an e-payment account suchas a PayPal® account, a cryptocurrency, an electronic currency, a tokenhaving value, cash, e-wallet funds, non-fungible tokens, a stored-valuecard, electronic bank transfers, ApplePay®, GooglePay®, AndroidPay®, orthe like. In some embodiments, at least a portion of the digital walletcan be or comprise a pass-through digital wallet or a stored-valuedigital wallet. In some embodiments, a portion of the information storedon the payment card (e.g., on an embedded chip or the like) can beencrypted while other portion(s) of the information stored on thepayment card can be non-encrypted.

By way of example only, a user may use a payment card, such as describedherein, to purchase a product or service, pay a bill or invoice,initiate a financial transaction, or the like. However, according tosome embodiments, the payment card can be user account-affiliated suchthat it is only configured for initiating payments, purchases, orfinancial transactions in association with a merchant account associatedwith the user. The set of merchant information may be dynamicallyupdated to add or remove merchant accounts associated with the user.Since the payment card according to some embodiments is configured toonly initiate payments, purchases, or financial transactions withpre-authorized merchants, and only in regard to accounts at thesepre-authorized merchants that are associated with the user, any personor device that gains unauthorized access to the user's payment cardwould only be able to complete purchases or payments regarding theuser's own accounts. For example, the user may have an account with alocal natural gas supply company, and therefore the local natural gassupply company may be designated as a pre-authorized merchant for theuser's digital wallet and the user's payment card. In an instance inwhich the local natural gas supply company is the only merchantpre-authorized for the user's digital wallet and the user's paymentcard, both the user's digital wallet and the user's payment card aresecured against any transaction with any other merchant, even with othermerchants with which the user has a legitimate account. As such, even ifthe user's digital wallet or the user's payment card was accessed by anunauthorized person or device, the unauthorized person or device wouldonly be able to make payments, from any of the user's stored paymentmethods, to the user's account with the local natural gas supplycompany. Other financial transactions, such as the transfer of funds toan external account, or even between the user's different paymentmethods stored at the digital wallet or on the payment card, thepurchase of any product or service with any other merchant, or any otherpayments are completely disallowed, even by the user, no matter whatauthentication information or other authorization commands are provided.

According to some embodiments, the digital wallet and/or the paymentcard can be configured such that additional merchants and/or additionaluser account with merchants can only be authorized for the digitalwallet and/or the payment card through an authorization process thatrequires additional security measures such as two-factor authentication,biometric screening, or the like.

In another embodiment, an apparatus can be provided that is configuredfor secure payment processing, the apparatus comprising: one or moreprocessors; and one or more memory devices storing program code, the oneor more memory devices and the program code being configured, with theone or more processors, at least to: store, in a digital walletassociated with a user, information regarding one or more paymentoptions associated with the user, and information regarding one or moremerchant accounts associated with the user; receive a request toinitiate a payment between the user and a payee; determine, based uponat least the information regarding one or more merchant accountsassociated with the user, whether the payee is associated with aparticular merchant account of the one or more merchant accountsassociated with the user; and, in an instance in which the payee isassociated with a particular merchant account of the one or moremerchant accounts associated with the user, initiate the payment to theparticular merchant account according to one of the one or more paymentoptions associated with the user. In some embodiments, the one or morememory devices and the program code are further configured, with the oneor more processors, at least to: store user payment preferencesassociated with the one or more merchant accounts and the one or morepayment options. In some embodiments, the one or more memory devices andthe program code are further configured, with the one or moreprocessors, at least to: determine, based upon at least the user paymentpreferences, a particular payment option from among the one or morepayment options to be used for the payment; and provide, to a paymentprocessor, sufficient information regarding the particular paymentoption from among the one or more payment options to cause the paymentprocessor to carry out a financial transfer between the particularpayment option associated with the user and the particular merchantaccount of the one or more merchant accounts associated with the user.In some embodiments, the one or more memory devices and the program codeare further configured, with the one or more processors, at least to:store merchant transaction requirements associated with the one or moremerchant accounts, the merchant transaction requirements comprising oneof: one or more allowed types of payment source, or one or moredisallowed types of payment source. In some embodiments, the one or morememory devices and the program code are further configured, with the oneor more processors, at least to: determine, based upon at least themerchant transaction requirements, a particular payment option fromamong the one or more payment options to be use for the payment; andprovide, to a payment processor, sufficient information regarding theparticular payment option from among the one or more payment options tocause the payment processor to carry out a financial transfer betweenthe particular payment option associated with the user and theparticular merchant account of the one or more merchant accountsassociated with the user. In some embodiments, the one or more memorydevices and the program code are further configured, with the one ormore processors, at least to: in an instance in which the determinationis in the affirmative, provide a notification to a user device or adevice associated with said particular merchant account that the paymenthas been initiated. In some embodiments, the one or more memory devicesand the program code are further configured, with the one or moreprocessors, at least to: in an instance in which the determination is inthe negative, provide a notification to a user device or a deviceassociated with said particular merchant account that the payment isdisallowed and refrain from initiating the payment with the paymentprocessor.

In still another embodiment, an apparatus can be provided that isconfigured for secure payment processing, the apparatus comprisingmeans, such as one or more processors and one or more memory devicesstoring program code, for storing, in a digital wallet associated with auser, information regarding one or more payment options associated withthe user, and information regarding one or more merchant accountsassociated with the user; means for receiving a request to initiate apayment between the user and a payee; means for determining, based uponat least the information regarding one or more merchant accountsassociated with the user, whether the payee is associated with aparticular merchant account of the one or more merchant accountsassociated with the user; and means for, in an instance in which thepayee is associated with a particular merchant account of the one ormore merchant accounts associated with the user, initiating the paymentto the particular merchant account according to one of the one or morepayment options associated with the user. In some embodiments, theapparatus can further comprise means for storing user paymentpreferences associated with the one or more merchant accounts and theone or more payment options. In some embodiments, the apparatus canfurther comprise means for determining, based upon at least the userpayment preferences, a particular payment option from among the one ormore payment options to be used for the payment; and means forproviding, to a payment processor, sufficient information regarding theparticular payment option from among the one or more payment options tocause the payment processor to carry out a financial transfer betweenthe particular payment option associated with the user and theparticular merchant account of the one or more merchant accountsassociated with the user. In some embodiments, the apparatus can furthercomprise means for storing merchant transaction requirements associatedwith the one or more merchant accounts, the merchant transactionrequirements comprising one of: one or more allowed types of paymentsource, or one or more disallowed types of payment source. In someembodiments, the apparatus can further comprise means for determining,based upon at least the merchant transaction requirements, a particularpayment option from among the one or more payment options to be use forthe payment; and means for providing, to a payment processor, sufficientinformation regarding the particular payment option from among the oneor more payment options to cause the payment processor to carry out afinancial transfer between the particular payment option associated withthe user and the particular merchant account of the one or more merchantaccounts associated with the user. In some embodiments, the apparatuscan further comprise means for, in an instance in which thedetermination is in the affirmative, providing a notification to a userdevice or a device associated with said particular merchant account thatthe payment has been initiated. In some embodiments, the apparatus canfurther comprise means for, in an instance in which the determination isin the negative, providing a notification to a user device or a deviceassociated with said particular merchant account that the payment isdisallowed and refraining from initiating the payment with the paymentprocessor.

According to another embodiment, a method for secure payment processingcan be carried out, the method comprising: storing, in a digital walletassociated with a user, information regarding one or more paymentoptions associated with the user, and information regarding one or moremerchant accounts associated with the user; receiving a request toinitiate a payment between the user and a payee; determining, based uponat least the information regarding one or more merchant accountsassociated with the user, whether the payee is associated with aparticular merchant account of the one or more merchant accountsassociated with the user; and, in an instance in which the payee isassociated with a particular merchant account of the one or moremerchant accounts associated with the user, initiating the payment tothe particular merchant account according to one of the one or morepayment options associated with the user. In some embodiments, themethod can further comprise: storing user payment preferences associatedwith the one or more merchant accounts and the one or more paymentoptions. In some embodiments, the method can further comprise:determining, based upon at least the user payment preferences, aparticular payment option from among the one or more payment options tobe used for the payment; and providing, to a payment processor,sufficient information regarding the particular payment option fromamong the one or more payment options to cause the payment processor tocarry out a financial transfer between the particular payment optionassociated with the user and the particular merchant account of the oneor more merchant accounts associated with the user. In some embodiments,the method can further comprise: storing merchant transactionrequirements associated with the one or more merchant accounts, themerchant transaction requirements comprising one of: one or more allowedtypes of payment source, or one or more disallowed types of paymentsource. In some embodiments, the method can further comprise:determining, based upon at least the merchant transaction requirements,a particular payment option from among the one or more payment optionsto be use for the payment; and providing, to a payment processor,sufficient information regarding the particular payment option fromamong the one or more payment options to cause the payment processor tocarry out a financial transfer between the particular payment optionassociated with the user and the particular merchant account of the oneor more merchant accounts associated with the user. In some embodiments,the method can further comprise: in an instance in which thedetermination is in the affirmative, providing a notification to a userdevice or a device associated with said particular merchant account thatthe payment has been initiated. In some embodiments, the method canfurther comprise: in an instance in which the determination is in thenegative, providing a notification to a user device or a deviceassociated with said particular merchant account that the payment isdisallowed and refraining from initiating the payment with the paymentprocessor.

According to still another embodiment, a computer program product can beprovided that comprises a non-transitory computer readable mediumstoring program instructions, the program instructions being operablefor causing at least: storing, in a digital wallet associated with auser, information regarding one or more payment options associated withthe user, and information regarding one or more merchant accountsassociated with the user; receiving a request to initiate a paymentbetween the user and a payee; determining, based upon at least theinformation regarding one or more merchant accounts associated with theuser, whether the payee is associated with a particular merchant accountof the one or more merchant accounts associated with the user; and, inan instance in which the payee is associated with a particular merchantaccount of the one or more merchant accounts associated with the user,initiating the payment to the particular merchant account according toone of the one or more payment options associated with the user. In someembodiments, the program instructions are further operable for causingat least: storing user payment preferences associated with the one ormore merchant accounts and the one or more payment options. In someembodiments, the program instructions are further operable for causingat least: determining, based upon at least the user payment preferences,a particular payment option from among the one or more payment optionsto be used for the payment; and providing, to a payment processor,sufficient information regarding the particular payment option fromamong the one or more payment options to cause the payment processor tocarry out a financial transfer between the particular payment optionassociated with the user and the particular merchant account of the oneor more merchant accounts associated with the user. In some embodiments,the program instructions are further operable for causing at least:storing merchant transaction requirements associated with the one ormore merchant accounts, the merchant transaction requirements comprisingone of: one or more allowed types of payment source, or one or moredisallowed types of payment source. In some embodiments, the programinstructions are further operable for causing at least: determining,based upon at least the merchant transaction requirements, a particularpayment option from among the one or more payment options to be use forthe payment; and providing, to a payment processor, sufficientinformation regarding the particular payment option from among the oneor more payment options to cause the payment processor to carry out afinancial transfer between the particular payment option associated withthe user and the particular merchant account of the one or more merchantaccounts associated with the user. In some embodiments, the programinstructions are further operable for causing at least: in an instancein which the determination is in the affirmative, providing anotification to a user device or a device associated with saidparticular merchant account that the payment has been initiated. In someembodiments, the program instructions are further operable for causingat least: in an instance in which the determination is in the negative,providing a notification to a user device or a device associated withsaid particular merchant account that the payment is disallowed andrefrain from initiating the payment with the payment processor.

According to yet another embodiment, an apparatus can be provided thatis configured for secure payment processing, the apparatus comprising:one or more processors; and one or more memory devices storing programcode, the one or more memory devices and the program code beingconfigured, with the one or more processors, at least to: store at leastpayor information, authentication information, and account informationassociated with a payor; store at least payee information associatedwith one or more payees; receive, from a payee device or a payor device,a request to initiate a payment, the request comprising the payorinformation, the payee information associated with a particular payee ofthe one or more payees, and payment information regarding the payment;determine, based at least upon the payor information, the payeeinformation associated with a particular payee of the one or morepayees, the authentication information, the account information, andpayment information regarding the payment, and further based upon one ofpayor preferences or payee preferences, whether the payment is with apre-approved payee from among the one or more payees; and, in aninstance in which the determination is in the affirmative, initiate thepayment by providing the payment information regarding the payment, thepayor information, the payee information associated with the particularpayee of the one or more payees, the authentication information, theaccount information, and the payment information regarding the paymentto a payment processor. In some embodiments, the one or more memorydevices and the program code are further configured, with the one ormore processors, at least to: in an instance in which the determinationis in the affirmative, provide a notification to the payee device or thepayor device that the payment has been initiated. In some embodiments,the one or more memory devices and the program code are furtherconfigured, with the one or more processors, at least to: in an instancein which the determination is in the negative, provide a notification tothe payee device or the payor device that the payment is disallowed andrefrain from initiating the payment with the payment processor.

According to another embodiment, an apparatus can be provided that isconfigured for secure payment processing, the apparatus comprisingmeans, such as one or more processors and one or more memory devicesstoring program code, for storing at least payor information,authentication information, and account information associated with apayor; means for storing at least payee information associated with oneor more payees; means for receiving, from a payee device or a payordevice, a request to initiate a payment, the request comprising thepayor information, the payee information associated with a particularpayee of the one or more payees, and payment information regarding thepayment; means for determining, based at least upon the payorinformation, the payee information associated with a particular payee ofthe one or more payees, the authentication information, the accountinformation, and payment information regarding the payment, and furtherbased upon one of payor preferences or payee preferences, whether thepayment is with a pre-approved payee from among the one or more payees;and means for, in an instance in which the determination is in theaffirmative, initiating the payment by providing the payment informationregarding the payment, the payor information, the payee informationassociated with the particular payee of the one or more payees, theauthentication information, the account information, and the paymentinformation regarding the payment to a payment processor. In someembodiments, the apparatus can further comprise means for, in aninstance in which the determination is in the affirmative, providing anotification to the payee device or the payor device that the paymenthas been initiated. In some embodiments, the apparatus can furthercomprise means for, in an instance in which the determination is in thenegative, providing a notification to the payee device or the payordevice that the payment is disallowed and refrain from initiating thepayment with the payment processor.

According to still another embodiment, a method can be carried out thatcomprises: storing at least payor information, authenticationinformation, and account information associated with a payor; storing atleast payee information associated with one or more payees; receiving,from a payee device or a payor device, a request to initiate a payment,the request comprising the payor information, the payee informationassociated with a particular payee of the one or more payees, andpayment information regarding the payment; determining, based at leastupon the payor information, the payee information associated with aparticular payee of the one or more payees, the authenticationinformation, the account information, and payment information regardingthe payment, and further based upon one of payor preferences or payeepreferences, whether the payment is with a pre-approved payee from amongthe one or more payees; and, in an instance in which the determinationis in the affirmative, initiating the payment by providing the paymentinformation regarding the payment, the payor information, the payeeinformation associated with the particular payee of the one or morepayees, the authentication information, the account information, and thepayment information regarding the payment to a payment processor. Insome embodiments, the method can further comprise: in an instance inwhich the determination is in the affirmative, providing a notificationto the payee device or the payor device that the payment has beeninitiated. In some embodiments, the method can further comprise: in aninstance in which the determination is in the negative, providing anotification to the payee device or the payor device that the payment isdisallowed and refraining from initiating the payment with the paymentprocessor.

According to yet another embodiment, a computer program product can beprovided that comprises a non-transitory computer readable mediumstoring program instructions, the program instructions being operablefor causing at least: storing at least payor information, authenticationinformation, and account information associated with a payor; storing atleast payee information associated with one or more payees; receiving,from a payee device or a payor device, a request to initiate a payment,the request comprising the payor information, the payee informationassociated with a particular payee of the one or more payees, andpayment information regarding the payment; determining, based at leastupon the payor information, the payee information associated with aparticular payee of the one or more payees, the authenticationinformation, the account information, and payment information regardingthe payment, and further based upon one of payor preferences or payeepreferences, whether the payment is with a pre-approved payee from amongthe one or more payees; and, in an instance in which the determinationis in the affirmative, initiating the payment by providing the paymentinformation regarding the payment, the payor information, the payeeinformation associated with the particular payee of the one or morepayees, the authentication information, the account information, and thepayment information regarding the payment to a payment processor. Insome embodiments, the program instructions are further operable forcausing at least: in an instance in which the determination is in theaffirmative, providing a notification to the payee device or the payordevice that the payment has been initiated. In some embodiments, theprogram instructions are further operable for causing at least: in aninstance in which the determination is in the negative, providing anotification to the payee device or the payor device that the payment isdisallowed and refraining from initiating the payment with the paymentprocessor.

According to another embodiment, an apparatus can be provided that isconfigured for secure payment processing, the apparatus comprising: oneor more processors; and one or more memory devices storing program code,the one or more memory devices and the program code being configured,with the one or more processors, at least to: store, in a digital walletassociated with a user, a set of digital wallet data associated with theuser, the set of digital wallet data comprising: a full name of theuser, a billing address of the user, account numbers and authenticationindicia associated with a plurality of merchant accounts associated withthe user, authentication information associated with the plurality ofmerchant accounts associated with the user, and at least one of: one ormore account numbers and one or more routing numbers associated with oneor more bank accounts associated with the user, a card number, anaccount number, and a card verification value associated with a creditcard or a debit card associated with the user, or one or more accountnumbers and authentication indicia associated with one or morecryptocurrency accounts associated with the user; receive a request toinitiate a payment between the user and the merchant, the requestcomprising at least: an indication of a payor, an indication of a payee,and a payment amount; determine, based at least upon the indication ofthe payor, the indication of the payee, and the set of digital walletdata stored in the digital wallet, whether the payment being requestedis to a pre-approved merchant account from among the plurality ofmerchant accounts; and, in an instance in which the determination is inthe affirmative, automatically initiate the payment. In someembodiments, the one or more memory devices and the program code arefurther configured, with the one or more processors, at least to: in aninstance in which the determination is in the affirmative, automaticallyinitiate the payment by providing at least a portion of the set ofdigital wallet data stored in the digital wallet and the payment amountto a payment processor. In some embodiments, the one or more memorydevices and the program code are further configured, with the one ormore processors, at least to: in an instance in which the determinationis in the affirmative, provide a notification to one or both of a userdevice associated with the payor or a merchant device associated withthe payee that the payment has been initiated. In some embodiments, theone or more memory devices and the program code are further configured,with the one or more processors, at least to: in an instance in whichthe determination is in the negative, provide a notification to one orboth of a user device associated with the payor or a merchant deviceassociated with the payee that the payment is disallowed and refrainfrom initiating the payment with the payment processor.

According to still another embodiment, an apparatus can be provided thatis configured for secure payment processing, the apparatus comprisingmeans, such as one or more processors and one or more memory devicesstoring program code, for storing, in a digital wallet associated with auser, a set of digital wallet data associated with the user, the set ofdigital wallet data comprising: a full name of the user, a billingaddress of the user, account numbers and authentication indiciaassociated with a plurality of merchant accounts associated with theuser, authentication information associated with the plurality ofmerchant accounts associated with the user, and at least one of: one ormore account numbers and one or more routing numbers associated with oneor more bank accounts associated with the user, a card number, anaccount number, and a card verification value associated with a creditcard or a debit card associated with the user, or one or more accountnumbers and authentication indicia associated with one or morecryptocurrency accounts associated with the user; means for receiving arequest to initiate a payment between the user and the merchant, therequest comprising at least: an indication of a payor, an indication ofa payee, and a payment amount; means for determining, based at leastupon the indication of the payor, the indication of the payee, and theset of digital wallet data stored in the digital wallet, whether thepayment being requested is to a pre-approved merchant account from amongthe plurality of merchant accounts; and means for, in an instance inwhich the determination is in the affirmative, automatically initiatingthe payment. In some embodiments, the apparatus can further comprise:means for, in an instance in which the determination is in theaffirmative, automatically initiating the payment by providing at leasta portion of the set of digital wallet data stored in the digital walletand the payment amount to a payment processor. In some embodiments, theapparatus can further comprise: means for, in an instance in which thedetermination is in the affirmative, providing a notification to one orboth of a user device associated with the payor or a merchant deviceassociated with the payee that the payment has been initiated. In someembodiments, the apparatus can further comprise: means for, in aninstance in which the determination is in the negative, providing anotification to one or both of a user device associated with the payoror a merchant device associated with the payee that the payment isdisallowed and refraining from initiating the payment with the paymentprocessor.

According to another embodiment, a method for secure payment processingcan be carried out, the method comprising: storing, in a digital walletassociated with a user, a set of digital wallet data associated with theuser, the set of digital wallet data comprising: a full name of theuser, a billing address of the user, account numbers and authenticationindicia associated with a plurality of merchant accounts associated withthe user, authentication information associated with the plurality ofmerchant accounts associated with the user, and at least one of: one ormore account numbers and one or more routing numbers associated with oneor more bank accounts associated with the user, a card number, anaccount number, and a card verification value associated with a creditcard or a debit card associated with the user, or one or more accountnumbers and authentication indicia associated with one or morecryptocurrency accounts associated with the user; receive a request toinitiate a payment between the user and the merchant, the requestcomprising at least: an indication of a payor, an indication of a payee,and a payment amount; determining, based at least upon the indication ofthe payor, the indication of the payee, and the set of digital walletdata stored in the digital wallet, whether the payment being requestedis to a pre-approved merchant account from among the plurality ofmerchant accounts; and, in an instance in which the determination is inthe affirmative, automatically initiating the payment. In someembodiments, the method can further comprise: in an instance in whichthe determination is in the affirmative, automatically initiating thepayment by providing at least a portion of the set of digital walletdata stored in the digital wallet and the payment amount to a paymentprocessor. In some embodiments, the method can further comprise: in aninstance in which the determination is in the affirmative, providing anotification to one or both of a user device associated with the payoror a merchant device associated with the payee that the payment has beeninitiated. In some embodiments, the method can further comprise: in aninstance in which the determination is in the negative, providing anotification to one or both of a user device associated with the payoror a merchant device associated with the payee that the payment isdisallowed and refraining from initiating the payment with the paymentprocessor.

According to still another embodiment, a computer program product can beprovided that comprises a non-transitory computer readable mediumstoring program instructions, the program instructions being operablefor causing at least: storing, in a digital wallet associated with auser, a set of digital wallet data associated with the user, the set ofdigital wallet data comprising: a full name of the user, a billingaddress of the user, account numbers and authentication indiciaassociated with a plurality of merchant accounts associated with theuser, authentication information associated with the plurality ofmerchant accounts associated with the user, and at least one of: one ormore account numbers and one or more routing numbers associated with oneor more bank accounts associated with the user, a card number, anaccount number, and a card verification value associated with a creditcard or a debit card associated with the user, or one or more accountnumbers and authentication indicia associated with one or morecryptocurrency accounts associated with the user; receiving a request toinitiate a payment between the user and the merchant, the requestcomprising at least: an indication of a payor, an indication of a payee,and a payment amount; determining, based at least upon the indication ofthe payor, the indication of the payee, and the set of digital walletdata stored in the digital wallet, whether the payment being requestedis to a pre-approved merchant account from among the plurality ofmerchant accounts; and, in an instance in which the determination is inthe affirmative, automatically initiating the payment. In someembodiments, the program instructions are further operable for causingat least: in an instance in which the determination is in theaffirmative, automatically initiating the payment by providing at leasta portion of the set of digital wallet data stored in the digital walletand the payment amount to a payment processor. In some embodiments, theprogram instructions are further operable for causing at least: in aninstance in which the determination is in the affirmative, providing anotification to one or both of a user device associated with the payoror a merchant device associated with the payee that the payment has beeninitiated. In some embodiments, the program instructions are furtheroperable for causing at least: in an instance in which the determinationis in the negative, providing a notification to one or both of a userdevice associated with the payor or a merchant device associated withthe payee that the payment is disallowed and refraining from initiatingthe payment with the payment processor.

The systems and methods disclosed herein present invention provide aconsolidated view of the bifurcated digital wallet, whereby the usergets no visibility to the underlying bifurcation of storing the data ina plurality of different data stores. Though the present disclosuredescribes the method and system for executing a transaction, however,the method and system may be used in other situations as well wherethere is a need for securely procuring data from a plurality of sourcesas a single source does not store all the required information.

Software embodiments, which comprise an ordered listing of executableinstructions for implementing logical functions, can be embodied in anycomputer-readable medium for use by or in connection with an instructionexecution system, apparatus, or device, such as a computer-based system,processor-containing system, or other system that can fetch theinstructions from the instruction execution system, apparatus, or deviceand execute the instructions. In the context of this document, a“computer-readable medium” can be any means that can contain, store, orcommunicate the program for use by or in connection with the instructionexecution system, apparatus, or device. The computer readable medium canbe, for example but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical,electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, ordevice. More specific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of thecomputer-readable medium would include the following: a portablecomputer diskette (magnetic), a random access memory (RAM) (electronic),a read-only memory (ROM) (electronic), an erasable programmableread-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory) (electronic), and a portablecompact disc read-only memory (CDROM) (optical). In addition, the scopeof the present disclosure includes embodying the functionality of theexample embodiments of the present disclosure in logic embodied inhardware or software-configured mediums.

While for purposes of simplicity of explanation, the illustratedmethodologies are shown and described as a series of blocks/steps, it isto be appreciated that the methodologies are not limited by the order ofthe blocks, as some blocks can occur in different orders and/orconcurrently with other blocks from that shown and described. Moreover,less than all the illustrated blocks may be required to implement anexample methodology. Blocks may be combined or separated into multiplecomponents. Furthermore, additional and/or alternative methodologies canemploy additional, not illustrated blocks.

Moreover, although the present invention and its advantages have beendescribed in detail, it should be understood that various changes,substitutions and alterations can be made herein without departing fromthe invention as defined by the appended claims. Moreover, the scope ofthe present application is not intended to be limited to the particularembodiments of the process, machine, manufacture, composition of matter,means, methods and steps described in the specification. As one willreadily appreciate from the disclosure, processes, machines,manufacture, compositions of matter, means, methods, or steps, presentlyexisting or later to be developed that perform substantially the samefunction or achieve substantially the same result as the correspondingembodiments described herein may be utilized. Accordingly, the appendedclaims are intended to include within their scope such processes,machines, manufacture, compositions of matter, means, methods, or steps.The preceding description has been presented with reference to variousembodiments. Persons skilled in the art and technology to which thisapplication pertains will appreciate that alterations and changes in thedescribed structures and methods of operation can be practiced withoutmeaningfully departing from the principle, spirit and scope.

What is claimed is:
 1. An apparatus configured for secure paymentprocessing, the apparatus comprising: one or more processors; and one ormore memory devices storing program code, the one or more memory devicesand the program code being configured, with the one or more processors,at least to: store, in a digital wallet associated with a user,information regarding a plurality of payment options associated with theuser, information regarding a plurality of merchant accounts associatedwith the user, and information regarding a plurality of biller accountsassociated with the user; receive, from a user device associated withthe user, based on a first interaction by the user with a user interfaceof the user device, an indication that the user would like to initiate atransaction with a payee, the payee comprising one of a particularmerchant or a particular biller; transmit, to the user device associatedwith the user, instructions to display, to the user, via the userinterface of the user device, the plurality of payment options forcompleting the transaction with the payee; in response to a secondinteraction by the user with the user interface, determine the user hasselected a preferred payment option from the plurality of paymentoptions for completing the transaction with the payee; request, from theuser device, transaction information, said transaction informationcomprising one of: merchant account information regarding the particularmerchant account or biller account information regarding the particularbiller account; receive, from the user device, the transactioninformation; store the transaction information in one of the one or morememory devices or the digital wallet associated with the user;determine, based upon at least the transaction information, theinformation regarding the plurality of merchant accounts associated withthe user, and the information regarding the plurality of biller accountsassociated with the user, by the one or more processors comparing thetransaction information received from the user device to the informationregarding the plurality of merchant accounts associated with the userand the information regarding the plurality of biller accountsassociated with the user, whether the payee is associated with one ofthe plurality of merchant accounts or the plurality of biller accounts;in an instance in which the one or more processors determine that thepayee is associated with one of the plurality of merchant accounts oneof the plurality of biller accounts, determine that the payee is apre-authorized merchant or a pre-authorized biller, and cause theapparatus to transmit a payment authorization signal to a paymentprocessor to initiate the payment to the payee via the particularmerchant account or the particular biller account using the preferredpayment option chosen from among the plurality of payment options by thesecond interaction with the user interface of the user device, thepayment authorization signal comprising: the transaction informationreceived from the user device, information regarding the particularmerchant account of the plurality of merchant accounts associated withthe user or the particular biller account of the plurality of billeraccounts associated with the user, and information regarding thepreferred payment option; and in an instance in which the one or moreprocessors determine that the payee is associated with an unaffiliatedmerchant account other than one of the plurality of merchant accounts oran unaffiliated biller account other than one of the plurality of billeraccounts, determine that the payee is not a pre-authorized merchant andnot a pre-authorized biller, and disallow initiation of the payment tothe payee by causing the apparatus to refrain from transmitting thepayment authorization signal to the payment processor.
 2. The apparatusof claim 1, wherein the one or more memory devices and the program codeare further configured, with the one or more processors, at least to:store user payment preferences associated with the plurality of merchantaccounts, the plurality of biller accounts, or the plurality of paymentoptions.
 3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the one or more memorydevices and the program code are further configured, with the one ormore processors, at least to: determine, based upon at least the userpayment preferences, the particular payment option from among theplurality of payment options to be used for the payment; and provide, tothe payment processor, information regarding the particular paymentoption from among the plurality of payment options to cause the paymentprocessor to carry out a financial transfer between the particularpayment option associated with the user and the particular merchantaccount of the plurality of merchant accounts associated with the useror the particular biller account of the plurality of biller accountsassociated with the user.
 4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the oneor more memory devices and the program code are further configured, withthe one or more processors, at least to: store merchant transactionrequirements associated with the plurality of merchant accounts, themerchant transaction requirements comprising one of: one or more allowedtypes of payment source or one or more disallowed types of paymentsource; or store biller transaction requirements associated with theplurality of biller accounts, the biller transaction requirementscomprising one or more of: one or more allowed types of payment sourceor one or more disallowed types of payment source.
 5. The apparatus ofclaim 4, wherein the one or more memory devices and the program code arefurther configured, with the one or more processors, at least to:determine, based upon at least the merchant transaction requirements orthe biller transaction requirements, the particular payment option fromamong the plurality of payment options to be used for the payment; andprovide, to a payment processor, information regarding the particularpayment option from among the plurality of payment options to cause thepayment processor to carry out a financial transfer between theparticular payment option associated with the user and the particularmerchant account of the plurality of merchant accounts associated withthe user or the particular biller account of the plurality of billeraccounts associated with the user.
 6. The apparatus of claim 1, whereinthe one or more memory devices and the program code are furtherconfigured, with the one or more processors, at least to: in an instancein which the payee is associated with a particular merchant account ofthe plurality of merchant accounts associated with the user or aparticular biller account of the plurality of biller accounts associatedwith the user, provide a notification to the user device that thepayment has been initiated.
 7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the oneor more memory devices and the program code are further configured, withthe one or more processors, at least to: in an instance in which thepayee is associated with an unaffiliated merchant account other than oneof the plurality of merchant accounts associated with the user or anunaffiliated biller account other than one of the plurality of billeraccounts associated with the user, provide a notification to the userdevice that the payment is disallowed.
 8. A method for secure paymentprocessing, the method comprising: storing, using a payment initiationsystem comprising a processor and a memory, in a digital walletassociated with a user, information regarding a plurality of paymentoptions associated with the user, information regarding a plurality ofmerchant accounts associated with the user, and information regarding aplurality of biller accounts associated with the user; receiving, from auser device associated with the user, based on a first interaction bythe user with a user interface of the user device, an indication thatthe user would like to initiate a transaction with a payee, the payeecomprising one of a particular merchant associated with a particularmerchant or a particular biller; transmitting, to the user deviceassociated with the user, instructions to display, to the user, via theuser interface of the user device, the plurality of payment options forcompleting the transaction with the payee; in response to a secondinteraction by the user with the user interface of the user device,determining the user has selected a preferred payment option from theplurality of payment options for a particular merchant accountassociated with the particular merchant or a particular biller accountassociated with the particular biller; requesting from the user device,transaction information, said transaction information comprising one of:merchant account information regarding the particular merchant accountor biller account information regarding the particular biller account;receiving, at the payment initiation system, from the user device, inresponse to an input by the user at the user device, the transactioninformation; storing, using the payment initiation system, in the memoryof the payment initiation system or the digital wallet associated withthe user, the transaction information; determining, based upon at leastthe transaction information, the information regarding the plurality ofmerchant accounts associated with the user, and the informationregarding the plurality of biller accounts associated with the user, bythe payment initiation system comparing the transaction informationreceived from the user device to the information regarding the pluralityof merchant accounts and the information regarding the plurality ofbiller accounts, whether the payee is associated with one of theplurality of merchant accounts or the plurality of biller accounts; inan instance in which the payment initiation system determines that thepayee is associated with one of the plurality of merchant accounts orthe plurality of biller accounts, determining that the payee is apre-authorized merchant or a pre-authorized biller, and initiating,using the payment initiation system, the payment to the payee, via theparticular merchant account or the particular biller account, accordingto the particular payment option chosen from among the plurality ofpayment options by the second interaction with the user interface of theuser device, by causing the payment initiation system to transmit apayment authorization signal to a payment processor, the paymentauthorization signal comprising: the transaction information receivedfrom the user device, information regarding the particular merchantaccount of the plurality of merchant accounts associated with the useror the particular biller account of the plurality of biller accountsassociated with the user, and information regarding the preferredpayment option; and in an instance in which the payment initiationsystem determines that the payee is associated with an unaffiliatedmerchant account other than one of the plurality of merchant accountsassociated with the user or an unaffiliated biller account other thanone of the plurality of biller accounts associated with the user,determining that the payee is not a pre-authorized merchant and not apre-authorized biller, and disallowing initiation of the payment to thepayee by causing the payment initiation system to refrain fromtransmitting the payment authorization signal to the payment processor.9. The method of claim 8, further comprising: storing user paymentpreferences associated with the plurality of merchant accounts, theplurality of biller accounts, or the plurality of payment options. 10.The method of claim 9, further comprising: determining, based upon atleast the user payment preferences, the particular payment option fromamong the plurality of payment options to be used for the payment; andproviding, to the payment processor, information regarding theparticular payment option from among the plurality of payment options tocause the payment processor to carry out a financial transfer betweenthe particular payment option associated with the user and theparticular merchant account of the plurality of merchant accountsassociated with the user or the particular biller account of theplurality of biller accounts associated with the user.
 11. The method ofclaim 8, further comprising: storing merchant transaction requirementsassociated with the plurality of merchant accounts, the merchanttransaction requirements comprising one of: one or more allowed types ofpayment source or one or more disallowed types of payment source; orstoring biller transaction requirements associated with the plurality ofbiller accounts, the biller transaction requirements comprising one ormore of: one or more allowed types of payment source or one or moredisallowed types of payment source.
 12. The method of claim 11, furthercomprising: determining, based upon at least the merchant transactionrequirements or the biller transaction requirements, the particularpayment option from among the plurality of payment options to be usedfor the payment; and providing, to a payment processor, informationregarding the particular payment option from among the plurality ofpayment options to cause the payment processor to carry out a financialtransfer between the particular payment option associated with the userand the particular merchant account of the plurality of merchantaccounts associated with the user or the particular biller account ofthe plurality of biller accounts associated with the user.
 13. Themethod of claim 8, further comprising: in an instance in which the payeeis associated with a particular merchant account of the plurality ofmerchant accounts associated with the user or a particular billeraccount of the plurality of biller accounts associated with the user,providing a notification to the user device, a device associated withsaid particular merchant account, or a device associated with saidparticular biller account, that the payment has been initiated.
 14. Themethod of claim 8, further comprising: in an instance in which the payeeis associated with an unaffiliated merchant account other than one ofthe plurality of merchant accounts associated with the user or anunaffiliated biller account other than one of the plurality of billeraccounts associated with the user, providing a notification to the userdevice that the payment is disallowed.
 15. A non-transitory computerreadable medium storing program instructions, the program instructionsbeing operable for causing at least: storing, using a payment initiationsystem comprising a processor and a memory, in a digital walletassociated with a user, information regarding a plurality of paymentoptions associated with the user, information regarding a plurality ofmerchant accounts associated with the user, and information regarding aplurality of biller accounts associated with the user; receiving, from auser device associated with the user, based on a first interaction bythe user with a user interface of the user device, an indication thatthe user would like to initiate a transaction with a payee, the payeecomprising one of a particular merchant associated with a particularmerchant or a particular biller; transmitting, to the user deviceassociated with the user, instructions to display, to the user, via theuser interface of the user device, the plurality of payment options forcompleting the transaction with the payee; in response to a secondinteraction by the user with the user interface of the user device,determining the user has selected a preferred payment option from theplurality of payment options for a particular merchant accountassociated with the particular merchant or a particular biller accountassociated with the particular biller; requesting from the user device,transaction information, said transaction information comprising one of:merchant account information regarding the particular merchant accountor biller account information regarding the particular biller account;receiving, at the payment initiation system, from the user device, inresponse to an input by the user at the user device, the transactioninformation; storing, using the payment initiation system, in the memoryof the payment initiation system or the digital wallet associated withthe user, the transaction information; determining, based upon at leastthe transaction information, the information regarding the plurality ofmerchant accounts associated with the user, and the informationregarding the plurality of biller accounts associated with the user, bythe payment initiation system comparing the transaction informationreceived from the user device to the information regarding the pluralityof merchant accounts and the information regarding the plurality ofbiller accounts, whether the payee is associated with one of theplurality of merchant accounts or the plurality of biller accounts; inan instance in which the payment initiation system determines that thepayee is associated with one of the plurality of merchant accounts orthe plurality of biller accounts, determining that the payee is apre-authorized merchant or a pre-authorized biller, and initiating,using the payment initiation system, the payment to the payee, via theparticular merchant account or the particular biller account, accordingto the particular payment option chosen from among the plurality ofpayment options by the second interaction with the user interface of theuser device, by causing the payment initiation system to transmit apayment authorization signal to a payment processor, the paymentauthorization signal comprising: the transaction information receivedfrom the user device, information regarding the particular merchantaccount of the plurality of merchant accounts associated with the useror the particular biller account of the plurality of biller accountsassociated with the user, and information regarding the preferredpayment option; and in an instance in which the payment initiationsystem determines that the payee is associated with an unaffiliatedmerchant account other than one of the plurality of merchant accountsassociated with the user or an unaffiliated biller account other thanone of the plurality of biller accounts associated with the user,determining that the payee is not a pre-authorized merchant and not apre-authorized biller, and disallowing initiation of the payment to thepayee by causing the payment initiation system to refrain fromtransmitting the payment authorization signal to the payment processor.16. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein theprogram instructions are further operable for causing at least: storing,in the memory of the payment initiation system or the digital wallet,user payment preferences associated with the plurality of merchantaccounts, the plurality of biller accounts, or the plurality of paymentoptions.
 17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 16,wherein the program instructions are further operable for causing atleast: causing the payment initiation system to determine, based upon atleast the user payment preferences, the particular payment option fromamong the plurality of payment options to be used for the payment; andproviding, using the payment initiation system, to a payment processor,information regarding the particular payment option from among theplurality of payment options to cause the payment processor to carry outa financial transfer between the particular payment option associatedwith the user and the particular merchant account of the plurality ofmerchant accounts associated with the user or the particular billeraccount of the plurality of biller accounts associated with the user.18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein theprogram instructions are further operable for causing at least: storing,in the memory of the payment initiation system or the digital wallet,merchant transaction requirements associated with the plurality ofmerchant accounts, the merchant transaction requirements comprising oneof: one or more allowed types of payment source or one or moredisallowed types of payment source; or storing, in the memory of thepayment initiation system or the digital wallet, biller transactionrequirements associated with the plurality of biller accounts, thebiller transaction requirements comprising one or more of: one or moreallowed types of payment source or one or more disallowed types ofpayment source.
 19. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim18, wherein the program instructions are further operable for causing atleast: causing the payment initiation system to determine, based upon atleast the merchant transaction requirements or the biller transactionrequirements, a particular payment option from among the plurality ofpayment options to be used for the payment; and providing, using thepayment initiation system, to the payment processor, informationregarding the particular payment option from among the plurality ofpayment options to cause the payment processor to carry out a financialtransfer between the particular payment option associated with the userand the particular merchant account of the plurality of merchantaccounts associated with the user or the particular biller account ofthe plurality of biller accounts associated with the user.
 20. Thenon-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the programinstructions are further operable for causing at least: in an instancein which the payee is associated with a particular merchant account ofthe plurality of merchant accounts associated with the user or aparticular biller account of the plurality of biller accounts associatedwith the user, causing the payment initiation system to transmit anotification to the user device, a device associated with saidparticular merchant account, or a device associated with said particularbiller account, that the payment has been initiated.
 21. Thenon-transitory computer readable medium of claim 20, wherein the programinstructions are further operable for causing at least: in an instancein which the payee is associated with an unaffiliated merchant accountother than one of the plurality of merchant accounts associated with theuser or an unaffiliated biller account other than one of the pluralityof biller accounts associated with the user, causing the paymentinitiation system to transmit a notification to the user device that thepayment is disallowed.
 22. An apparatus configured for secure paymentprocessing, the apparatus comprising: one or more processors; and one ormore memory devices storing program code, the one or more memory devicesand the program code being configured, with the one or more processors,at least to: store, in a digital wallet associated with a user,information regarding one or more payment options associated with theuser, information regarding one or more merchant accounts associatedwith the user, and information regarding one or more biller accountsassociated with the user; receive, from a user device associated withthe user, based on a first interaction by the user with a user interfaceof the user device, an indication that the user would like to initiate atransaction with a payee, the payee comprising one of a particularmerchant or a particular biller; transmit, to the user device associatedwith the user, instructions to display, to the user, via the userinterface of the user device, the plurality of payment options forcompleting the transaction with the payee; in response to a secondinteraction by the user with the user interface, determine that the userhas selected a preferred payment option from the one or more paymentoptions for completing the transaction with the payee; request, from theuser device, transaction information, said transaction informationcomprising one of: merchant account information for a particularmerchant account associated with the particular merchant or billeraccount information for a particular biller account associated with theparticular biller; receive, from the user device, the transactioninformation; store the transaction information in one of the one or morememory devices of the apparatus or in the digital wallet associated withthe user; determine, based upon at least the transaction information,the information regarding the one or more merchant accounts associatedwith the user, and the information regarding the one or more billeraccounts associated with the user, by the one or more processorscomparing the transaction information received from the user device tothe information regarding the one or more merchant accounts associatedwith the user and the information regarding the one or more billeraccounts associated with the user, whether the payee is associated withone of the one or more merchant accounts associated with the user or theone or more biller accounts associated with the payee; in an instance inwhich the one or more processors determine that the payee is associatedwith one of the one or more merchant accounts associated with the useror one of the one or more biller accounts associated with the user,determine that the payee is a pre-authorized merchant or apre-authorized biller, and cause the apparatus to transmit a paymentauthorization signal to a payment processor to initiate the payment tothe payee via the particular merchant account or the particular billeraccount using the preferred payment option chosen from among theplurality of payment options by the second interaction with the userinterface of the user device, the payment authorization signalcomprising: the transaction information received from the user device,information regarding the particular merchant account of the pluralityof merchant accounts associated with the user or the particular billeraccount of the plurality of biller accounts associated with the user,and information regarding the preferred payment option; and in aninstance in which the one or more processors determine that the payee isassociated with an unaffiliated merchant account other than one of theone or more merchant accounts associated with the user or anunaffiliated biller account other than one of the one or more billeraccounts associated with the user, determine that the payee is not apre-authorized merchant and not a pre-authorized biller, and disallowinitiation of the payment to the payee by causing the apparatus torefrain from transmitting the payment authorization signal to thepayment processor.
 23. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the one ormore memory devices and the program code are further configured, withthe one or more processors, at least to: receive, from the user device,in response to one or more other inputs by the user, user paymentpreferences associated with the one or more payment options and userpayee preferences associated with at least one of the one or moremerchant accounts or the one or more biller accounts.
 24. The apparatusof claim 23, wherein the one or more memory devices and the program codeare further configured, with the one or more processors, at least to:determine, based upon at least the user payment preferences, theparticular payment option from among the one or more payment options tobe used for the payment; and provide, to a payment processor,information regarding the particular payment option from among the oneor more payment options to cause the payment processor to carry out afinancial transfer between the particular payment option associated withthe user and the particular merchant account of the one or more merchantaccounts associated with the user or the particular biller account ofthe one or more biller accounts associated with the user.
 25. A methodfor secure payment processing, the method comprising: storing, using apayment initiation system comprising a processor and a memory, in adigital wallet associated with a user, information regarding one or morepayment options associated with the user, information regarding one ormore merchant accounts associated with the user, and informationregarding one or more biller accounts associated with the user;receiving, from a user device associated with the user, based on a firstinteraction by the user with a user interface of the user device, anindication that the user would like to initiate a transaction with apayee, the payee comprising one of a particular merchant or a particularbiller; transmitting, to the user device associated with the user,instructions to display, to the user, via the user interface of the userdevice, the one or more payment options for completing the transactionwith the payee; in response to a second interaction by the user with theuser interface, determining that the user has selected a preferredpayment option from the one or more payment options for completing thetransaction with the payee; requesting, from the user device associatedwith the user, transaction information, said transaction informationcomprising one of: merchant account information for a particularmerchant account associated with the particular merchant or billeraccount information for a particular biller account associated with theparticular biller; receiving, at the payment initiation system, from theuser device, the transaction information; storing, using the paymentinitiation system, in the memory of the payment initiation system or thedigital wallet associated with the user, the transaction information;determining, based upon at least the transaction information, theinformation regarding the one or more merchant accounts associated withthe user, and the information regarding the one or more biller accountsassociated with the user, by the payment initiation system comparing thetransaction information received from the user device to the informationregarding the one or more merchant accounts and the informationregarding the one or more biller accounts, whether the payee isassociated with one of the one or more merchant accounts or the one ormore biller accounts; in an instance in which the payment initiationsystem determines that the payee is associated with one of the one ormore merchant accounts associated with the user or the one or morebiller accounts associated with the user, determining that the payee isa pre-authorized merchant or a pre-authorized biller, and initiating thepayment to the payee, via the particular merchant account or theparticular biller account, using the preferred payment option chosenfrom among the plurality of payment options by the second interactionwith the user interface of the user device by causing the paymentinitiation system to transmit a payment authorization signal to apayment processor, the payment authorization signal comprising: thetransaction information received from the user device, informationregarding the particular merchant account of the one or more merchantaccounts associated with the user or the particular biller account ofthe one or more biller accounts associated with the user, andinformation regarding the preferred payment option; and in an instancein which the payment initiation system determines that the payee isassociated with an unaffiliated merchant account other than one of theone or more merchant accounts associated with the user or anunaffiliated biller account other than one of the one or more billeraccounts associated with the user, determining that the payee is not apre-authorized merchant and not a pre-authorized biller, and disallowinginitiation of the payment to the payee by causing the payment initiationsystem to refrain from transmitting the payment authorization signal tothe payment processor.
 26. The method of claim 25, further comprising:receiving, at the payment initiation system, from the user device, inresponse to one or more other inputs by the user, user paymentpreferences associated with the one or more payment options and userpayee preferences associated with at least one of the one or moremerchant accounts or the one or more biller accounts.
 27. The method ofclaim 26, further comprising: determining, based upon at least the userpreferences, the particular payment option from among the one or morepayment options to be used for the payment; and providing, to thepayment processor, information regarding the particular payment optionfrom among the one or more payment options to cause the paymentprocessor to carry out a financial transfer between the particularpayment option associated with the user and the particular merchantaccount of the one or more merchant accounts associated with the user orthe particular biller account of the one or more biller accountsassociated with the user.
 28. A non-transitory computer readable mediumstoring program instructions, the program instructions being operablefor causing at least: storing, using a payment initiation systemcomprising a processor and a memory, in a digital wallet associated witha user, information regarding one or more payment options associatedwith the user, information regarding one or more merchant accountsassociated with the user, and information regarding one or more billeraccounts associated with the user; receiving, from a user deviceassociated with the user, based on a first interaction by the user witha user interface of the user device, an indication that the user wouldlike to initiate a transaction with a payee, the payee comprising one ofa particular merchant or a particular biller; transmitting, to the userdevice associated with the user, instructions to display, to the user,via the user interface of the user device, the one or more paymentoptions for completing the transaction with the payee; in response to asecond interaction by the user with the user interface, determining thatthe user has selected a preferred payment option from the one or morepayment options for completing the transaction with the payee;requesting, from the user device associated with the user, transactioninformation, said transaction information comprising one of: merchantaccount information for a particular merchant account associated withthe particular merchant or biller account information for a particularbiller account associated with the particular biller; receiving, at thepayment initiation system, from the user device, the transactioninformation; storing, using the payment initiation system, in the memoryof the payment initiation system or the digital wallet associated withthe user, the transaction information; determining, based upon at leastthe transaction information, the information regarding the one or moremerchant accounts associated with the user, and the informationregarding the one or more biller accounts associated with the user, bythe payment initiation system comparing the transaction informationreceived from the user device to the information regarding the one ormore merchant accounts and the information regarding the one or morebiller accounts, whether the payee is associated with one of the one ormore merchant accounts or the one or more biller accounts; in aninstance in which the payment initiation system determines that thepayee is associated with one of the one or more merchant accountsassociated with the user or the one or more biller accounts associatedwith the user, determining that the payee is a pre-authorized merchantor a pre-authorized biller, and initiating the payment to the payee, viathe particular merchant account or the particular biller account, usingthe preferred payment option chosen from among the plurality of paymentoptions by the second interaction with the user interface of the userdevice by causing the payment initiation system to transmit a paymentauthorization signal to a payment processor, the payment authorizationsignal comprising: the transaction information received from the userdevice, information regarding the particular merchant account of the oneor more merchant accounts associated with the user or the particularbiller account of the one or more biller accounts associated with theuser, and information regarding the preferred payment option; and in aninstance in which the payment initiation system determines that thepayee is associated with an unaffiliated merchant account other than oneof the one or more merchant accounts associated with the user or anunaffiliated biller account other than one of the one or more billeraccounts associated with the user, determining that the payee is not apre-authorized merchant and not a pre-authorized biller, and disallowinginitiation of the payment to the payee by causing the payment initiationsystem to refrain from transmitting the payment authorization signal tothe payment processor.
 29. The non-transitory computer readable mediumof claim 28, wherein the non-transitory computer readable medium furtherstores program instructions that are operable for causing at least:receiving, from the user device, in response to one or more other inputsby the user, user payment preferences associated with the one or morepayment options and user payee preferences associated with at least oneof the one or more merchant accounts or the one or more biller accounts.30. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 29, wherein thenon-transitory computer readable medium further stores programinstructions that are operable for causing at least: determining, basedupon at least the user payment preferences, the particular paymentoption from among the one or more payment options to be used for thepayment; and providing, to the payment processor, information regardingthe particular payment option from among the one or more payment optionsto cause the payment processor to carry out a financial transfer betweenthe particular payment option associated with the user and theparticular merchant account of the one or more merchant accountsassociated with the user or the particular biller account of the one ormore biller accounts associated with the user.